Question

I have a table Table1

Name     Date

A        01-jun-2010

B        03-dec-2010

C        12-may-2010

When i query this table with the following query

select * from table1 where rownum=1

i got output as

Name       Date

A          01-jun-2010

But in the same way when i use the following queries i do not get any output.

select * from table1 where rownum=2
select * from table1 where rownum=3

Someone please give me guidance why it works like that, and how to use the rownum.

Answer 1

Tom has an answer for many Oracle related questions

In short, rownum is available after the where clause has been applied and before the order by clause is applied.

In the case of RowNum=2, the predicate in the where clause will never evaluate to true as RowNum starts at 1 and only increases if records matching the predicate can be found.