MySQL Limit Rows | MySQL Tutorials

The MySQL Limit clause is used to limit the number of rows that are returned by a MySQL select query. That is, if a particular query would normally have returned a certain number of rows, specifying LIMIT x would truncate the result set to the first x rows only.

This is a useful feature if we have a large database and do not necessarily need all the rows that are returned from a query.

The MySQL Limit rows tutorial below explains.

MySQL Limit Syntax

The syntax for LIMIT is shown below:

SELECT column_name
FROM table_name
LIMIT number;

Where number is the number of rows that we want in our result set.

MySQL Limit Example

Suppose we have our trusty "employees" table as follows:

id	first_name	last_name
1	Paul	Pitterson
2	Francine	Beecham
3	Raul	DiNozzo
4	Anthony	DiNozzo

If we wanted to return the first 2 employees, we would use the following SQL:

SELECT * FROM employees LIMIT 2;

This would yield:

id	first_name	last_name
1	Paul	Pitterson
2	Francine	Beecham

That is really all there is to the LIMIT clause in MySQL and it brings us to the end of our MySQL limit tutorial.