SELECT TOP ... FROM UNION
select, sql, sql-server, union
Solution
Use the Top keyword for inner queries also:
SELECT TOP N ... FROM
(SELECT TOP N... FROM Table1
UNION
SELECT TOP N... FROM Table2) as result
Problem
What is the best way to SELECT TOP N records from UNION of 2 queries? I can't do ``` SELECT TOP N ... FROM (SELECT ... FROM Table1 UNION SELECT ... FROM Table2) ``` because both queries return huge results I need every bit of optimization possible and would like to avoid returning everything. For the same reason I cannot insert results into #TEMP table first either. I can't use `SET ROWCOUNT N` either because I may need to group results and this command will limit number of grouped rows, and not underlying row selections. Any other ideas? Thanks!