Instruction
Great! We'll show you another feature of PostgreSQL. By default, PostgreSQL returns every row that matches the given criteria. This is what we normally expect, of course, but there are cases when we might want to change this behavior.
The more rows the database has to retrieve, the more time it takes. This isn't good, especially when we don't have to look at all the results but only need a small glimpse at the data. Take a look:
SELECT * FROM orders LIMIT 10;
LIMIT n returns the first n rows from the result. This is much more efficient than returning all the data from the database.
You can see something similar in our sandbox environment here. Every time you run a query, it returns the first 20 rows. This way, you get the response faster.
Exercise
Select the top five rows of salary and position from the employees table. Use the template provided.
Try running the template before solving the exercise in order to see the difference for yourself.
Stuck? Here's a hint!
Type:
SELECT salary, position FROM employees LIMIT 5;
