Question

I have a table tbl_test:

create table tbl_test (
    tabid int identity
)

with the values:

 Insert into tbl_test values 1 union 2 union 3 .... union 1000

Query:

select MAX(b.tabid) from
(  
    select top 100 * from tbl_test
) as b  

I expect this query to return 100 but instead it returns 1000.

Answer 1

select top 100 * from tbl_test 

There is no explicit order on the inner statement, so there is no guarentee in which order the rows are read. If you order it by tabid ASC you should see the expected 100.