Find the Nth Maximum and Minimum Value in a Column

Here’s a simple query to find the Nth Maximum and Minimum values in a SQL Server table column using the Row_Number() function. We will find the 3rd highest and 3rd lowest values in the column.

DECLARE @tmp TABLE(id integer, amount integer)

INSERT INTO @tmp values(4, 9543)
INSERT INTO @tmp values(6, 34)
INSERT INTO @tmp values(3, 54)
INSERT INTO @tmp values(2, 6632)
INSERT INTO @tmp values(5, 645)
INSERT INTO @tmp values(1, 1115)
INSERT INTO @tmp values(7, 345)

-- FIND Nth Maximum value
SELECT id, amount
FROM
(
SELECT id, amount, Row_Number() OVER(ORDER BY amount DESC) AS highest
FROM @tmp
) as x
WHERE highest = 3

-- FIND Nth Minimum value
SELECT id, amount
FROM
(
SELECT id, amount, Row_Number() OVER(ORDER BY amount ASC) AS lowest
FROM @tmp


) as x
WHERE lowest = 3

OUTPUT


The first output shows the 3rd maximum value in the column whereas the second output shows the 3rd minimum value in the column

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of DotNetCurry, DNC Magazine for Developers, SQLServerCurry and DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and a new one recently at The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Suprotim has received the prestigous Microsoft MVP award for nine times in a row now. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that represents premium web sites and digital publications comprising of Professional web, windows, mobile and cloud developers, technical managers, and architects.

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