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Asked: 2026-05-11T03:01:10+00:00

Is there a difference in performance between TOP and SET ROWCOUNT or do they

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Is there a difference in performance between TOP and SET ROWCOUNT or do they just get executed in the same manner?

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  1. Yes, functionally they are the same thing. As far as I know there are no significant performance differences between the two.

    Just one thing to note is that once you have set rowcount this will persist for the life of the connection so make sure you reset it to 0 once you are done with it.

    EDIT (post Martin’s comment)

    The scope of SET ROWCOUNT is for the current procedure only. This includes procedures called by the current procedure. It also includes dynamic SQL executed via EXEC or SP_EXECUTESQL since they are considered ‘child’ scopes.

    Notice that SET ROWCOUNT is in a BEGIN/END scope, but it extends beyond that.

    create proc test1 as begin     begin     set rowcount 100     end     exec ('select top 101 * from master..spt_values') end GO  exec test1 select top 102 * from master..spt_values

    Result = 100 rows, then 102 rows

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