Select top 10 records for each category

I want to return top 10 records from each section in one query. Can anyone help with how to do it? Section is one of the columns in the table.

Database is SQL Server 2005. I want to return the top 10 by date entered. Sections are business, local, and feature. For one particular date I want only the top (10) business rows (most recent entry), the top (10) local rows, and the top (10) features.

Solution 1:

If you are using SQL 2005 you can do something like this...

SELECT rs.Field1,rs.Field2 
    FROM (
        SELECT Field1,Field2, Rank() 
          over (Partition BY Section
                ORDER BY RankCriteria DESC ) AS Rank
        FROM table
        ) rs WHERE Rank <= 10

If your RankCriteria has ties then you may return more than 10 rows and Matt's solution may be better for you.

Solution 2:

In T-SQL, I would do:

WITH TOPTEN AS (
    SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() 
    over (
        PARTITION BY [group_by_field] 
        order by [prioritise_field]
    ) AS RowNo 
    FROM [table_name]
)
SELECT * FROM TOPTEN WHERE RowNo <= 10

Solution 3:

SELECT r.*
FROM
(
    SELECT
        r.*,
        ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY r.[SectionID]
                          ORDER BY r.[DateEntered] DESC) rn
    FROM [Records] r
) r
WHERE r.rn <= 10
ORDER BY r.[DateEntered] DESC

Solution 4:

This works on SQL Server 2005 (edited to reflect your clarification):

select *
from Things t
where t.ThingID in (
    select top 10 ThingID
    from Things tt
    where tt.Section = t.Section and tt.ThingDate = @Date
    order by tt.DateEntered desc
    )
    and t.ThingDate = @Date
order by Section, DateEntered desc

Solution 5:

I do it this way:

SELECT a.* FROM articles AS a
  LEFT JOIN articles AS a2 
    ON a.section = a2.section AND a.article_date <= a2.article_date
GROUP BY a.article_id
HAVING COUNT(*) <= 10;

update: This example of GROUP BY works in MySQL and SQLite only, because those databases are more permissive than standard SQL regarding GROUP BY. Most SQL implementations require that all columns in the select-list that aren't part of an aggregate expression are also in the GROUP BY.