LIMIT in PHP mssql_query?

Question

I'm using PHP to connect to a MS Sql database. I've got it all working except I can't seem to get the LIMIT to work.

The following query returns an error:

$query = "SELECT name, id, startDate FROM events LIMIT 0, 20";

Here's the Error it's returning:

Warning: mssql_query() [function.mssql-query]: message: Incorrect syntax near '0'. (severity 15) in /var/www/vhosts/[hidden]/index.php on line 201

I've also tried using the following:

$query = "SELECT name, id, startDate FROM events LIMIT 20";

But it returns the same result.

Now, the same query without the "limit" in it, returns fine... but loads over 6,000 results which I obviously don't want :)

Anyone have any ideas? Troy

Answer 1

LIMIT is MySQL syntax -- on SQL Server, you need to use TOP :

SELECT TOP 20 
       e.name, 
       e.id, 
       e.startDate 
  FROM EVENTS e

Unlike LIMIT, TOP doesn't have the ability to specify an offset in case you're looking to use this for pagination.

Answer 2

It looks like you are using MySQL syntax on a SQL Server. SQL Server doesn't have the LIMIT option. You can try the TOP command in SQL Server.