Mastering SQL: How to Retrieve the Second-Highest Salary

 How to Retrieve the Second-Highest Salary

SELECT DISTINCT TOP 1 Salary FROM Employees WHERE Salary NOT IN ( SELECT DISTINCT TOP 1 Salary FROM Employees ORDER BY Salary DESC ) ORDER BY Salary DESC;

 

 

Let's break down the SQL query step by step:

SELECT DISTINCT TOP 1 Salary: This portion of the query retrieves the first unique salary from the result set. The usage of TOP 1 ensures that only one row is returned, and we're specifically selecting the Salary column.

FROM Employees: In this part, Employees represents the table from which we are extracting salary information. It's essential to replace Employees with the actual table name in your database.

WHERE Salary NOT IN (...): This section filters out salaries that match the highest salary. To accomplish this, a subquery is employed to identify the highest salary.

SELECT DISTINCT TOP 1 Salary FROM Employees ORDER BY Salary DESC: Inside this subquery, the highest salary is selected from the table. By using ORDER BY Salary DESC, the salaries are arranged in descending order, ensuring that the highest salary is at the top. TOP 1 is used to retrieve only the highest salary.

ORDER BY Salary DESC: In the main query, the result set is ordered in descending order based on the salary column. This arrangement means that the second-highest salary will be the initial record in the ordered result set.

Through this approach, the outer query selects the first salary that isn't the same as the highest salary, resulting in the retrieval of the second-highest salary in the table. This technique can be extended to find the third-highest, fourth-highest, and subsequent highest salaries by modifying the number in the NOT IN subquery.

Remember to substitute Employees with the precise table name that applies to your database scenario.

 

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