The Top Operator in SQL Server execution plans is used to limit the number of rows returned by a query. It appears when a query contains a TOP clause, such as SELECT TOP N or in certain scenarios involving row limiting, like when using OFFSET-FETCH or Top Percentage. Top operator looks like as below
Let’s see the example
Simple query
|
select top 10* from HumanResources.Employee |
This query will return top 10 records
from this table.
If we are using OFFSET-FETCH in the query it will generate the top operator although we are not using here any top operator.
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select * from HumanResources.Employee order by BusinessEntityID OFFSET 1 ROWS FETCH NEXT 10 ROWS ONLY |
Read more about OFFSET-FETCH
Pagination in SQL Server using offset and fetch
https://bageshkumarbagi-msbi.blogspot.com/2019/07/pagination-in-sql-server-using-offset.html
