The PostgreSQL LIMIT clause is used to limit the data amount returned by the SELECT statement.

Syntax

The basic syntax of SELECT statement with LIMIT clause is as follows −

SELECT column1, column2, columnN
FROM table_name
LIMIT [no of rows]

The following is the syntax of LIMIT clause when it is used along with OFFSET clause −

SELECT column1, column2, columnN
FROM table_name
LIMIT [no of rows] OFFSET [row num]

LIMIT and OFFSET allow you to retrieve just a portion of the rows that are generated by the rest of the query.

Example

Consider the table COMPANY having records as follows −

# select * from COMPANY;
 id | name  | age | address   | salary
----+-------+-----+-----------+--------
  1 | Paul  |  32 | California|  20000
  2 | Allen |  25 | Texas     |  15000
  3 | Teddy |  23 | Norway    |  20000
  4 | Mark  |  25 | Rich-Mond |  65000
  5 | David |  27 | Texas     |  85000
  6 | Kim   |  22 | South-Hall|  45000
  7 | James |  24 | Houston   |  10000
(7 rows)

The following is an example, which limits the row in the table according to the number of rows you want to fetch from table −

testdb=# SELECT * FROM COMPANY LIMIT 4;

This would produce the following result −

 id | name  | age | address     | salary
----+-------+-----+-------------+--------
  1 | Paul  |  32 | California  |  20000
  2 | Allen |  25 | Texas       |  15000
  3 | Teddy |  23 | Norway      |  20000
  4 | Mark  |  25 | Rich-Mond   |  65000
(4 rows)

However, in certain situation, you may need to pick up a set of records from a particular offset. Here is an example, which picks up three records starting from the third position −

testdb=# SELECT * FROM COMPANY LIMIT 3 OFFSET 2;

This would produce the following result −

 id | name  | age | address   | salary
----+-------+-----+-----------+--------
  3 | Teddy |  23 | Norway    |  20000
  4 | Mark  |  25 | Rich-Mond |  65000
  5 | David |  27 | Texas     |  85000
(3 rows)