spark-instrumented-optimizer/docs/sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-limit.md

---
layout: global
title: LIMIT Clause
displayTitle: LIMIT Clause
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  contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
  this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
  The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
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---

### Description

The `LIMIT` clause is used to constrain the number of rows returned by
the [SELECT](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select.html) statement. In general, this clause
is used in conjunction with [ORDER BY](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-orderby.html) to
ensure that the results are deterministic.

### Syntax

```sql
LIMIT { ALL | integer_expression }
```

### Parameters

* **ALL**

    If specified, the query returns all the rows. In other words, no limit is applied if this
    option is specified.

* **integer_expression**

    Specifies a foldable expression that returns an integer.

### Examples

```sql
CREATE TABLE person (name STRING, age INT);
INSERT INTO person VALUES
    ('Zen Hui', 25),
    ('Anil B', 18),
    ('Shone S', 16),
    ('Mike A', 25),
    ('John A', 18),
    ('Jack N', 16);

-- Select the first two rows.
SELECT name, age FROM person ORDER BY name LIMIT 2;
+------+---+
|  name|age|
+------+---+
|Anil B| 18|
|Jack N| 16|
+------+---+

-- Specifying ALL option on LIMIT returns all the rows.
SELECT name, age FROM person ORDER BY name LIMIT ALL;
+-------+---+
|   name|age|
+-------+---+
| Anil B| 18|
| Jack N| 16|
| John A| 18|
| Mike A| 25|
|Shone S| 16|
|Zen Hui| 25|
+-------+---+

-- A function expression as an input to LIMIT.
SELECT name, age FROM person ORDER BY name LIMIT length('SPARK');
+-------+---+
|   name|age|
+-------+---+
| Anil B| 18|
| Jack N| 16|
| John A| 18|
| Mike A| 25|
|Shone S| 16|
+-------+---+

-- A non-foldable expression as an input to LIMIT is not allowed.
SELECT name, age FROM person ORDER BY name LIMIT length(name);
org.apache.spark.sql.AnalysisException: The limit expression must evaluate to a constant value ...
```

### Related Statements

* [SELECT Main](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select.html)
* [WHERE Clause](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-where.html)
* [GROUP BY Clause](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-groupby.html)
* [HAVING Clause](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-having.html)
* [ORDER BY Clause](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-orderby.html)
* [SORT BY Clause](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-sortby.html)
* [CLUSTER BY Clause](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-clusterby.html)
* [DISTRIBUTE BY Clause](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-distribute-by.html)
* [CASE Clause](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-case.html)
* [PIVOT Clause](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-pivot.html)
* [LATERAL VIEW Clause](sql-ref-syntax-qry-select-lateral-view.html)