How to find third or nᵗʰ maximum salary from salary table?

How to find third or n^th maximum salary from salary table(EmpID, EmpName, EmpSalary) in optimized way?

Solution 1:

Row Number :

SELECT Salary,EmpName
FROM
  (
   SELECT Salary,EmpName,ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY Salary) As RowNum
   FROM EMPLOYEE
   ) As A
WHERE A.RowNum IN (2,3)

Sub Query :

SELECT *
FROM Employee Emp1
WHERE (N-1) = (
               SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT(Emp2.Salary))
               FROM Employee Emp2
               WHERE Emp2.Salary > Emp1.Salary
               )

Top Keyword :

SELECT TOP 1 salary
FROM (
      SELECT DISTINCT TOP n salary
      FROM employee
      ORDER BY salary DESC
      ) a
ORDER BY salary

Solution 2:

Use ROW_NUMBER(if you want a single) or DENSE_RANK(for all related rows):

WITH CTE AS
(
    SELECT EmpID, EmpName, EmpSalary,
           RN = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY EmpSalary DESC)
    FROM dbo.Salary
)
SELECT EmpID, EmpName, EmpSalary
FROM CTE
WHERE RN = @NthRow

Solution 3:

Try this

SELECT TOP 1 salary FROM (
   SELECT TOP 3 salary 
   FROM employees 
   ORDER BY salary DESC) AS emp 
ORDER BY salary ASC

For 3 you can replace any value...

Solution 4:

If you want optimize way means use TOP Keyword, So the nth max and min salaries query as follows but the queries look like a tricky as in reverse order by using aggregate function names:

N maximum salary:

SELECT MIN(EmpSalary)
FROM Salary
WHERE EmpSalary IN(SELECT TOP N EmpSalary FROM Salary ORDER BY EmpSalary DESC)

for Ex: 3 maximum salary:

SELECT MIN(EmpSalary)
FROM Salary
WHERE EmpSalary IN(SELECT TOP 3 EmpSalary FROM Salary ORDER BY EmpSalary DESC)

N minimum salary:

SELECT MAX(EmpSalary)
FROM Salary
WHERE EmpSalary IN(SELECT TOP N EmpSalary FROM Salary ORDER BY EmpSalary ASC)

for Ex: 3 minimum salary:

SELECT MAX(EmpSalary)
FROM Salary
WHERE EmpSalary IN(SELECT TOP 3 EmpSalary FROM Salary ORDER BY EmpSalary ASC)

Solution 5:

Too simple if you use the sub query!

SELECT MIN(EmpSalary) from (
SELECT EmpSalary from Employee ORDER BY EmpSalary DESC LIMIT 3
);

You can here just change the nth value after the LIMIT constraint.

Here in this the Sub query Select EmpSalary from Employee Order by EmpSalary DESC Limit 3; would return the top 3 salaries of the Employees. Out of the result we will choose the Minimum salary using MIN command to get the 3rd TOP salary of the employee.