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query With ROWNUM Showing wrong results (Doc ID 2745471.1)

Last updated on APRIL 17, 2023

Applies to:

Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 12.2.0.1 and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Symptoms

User getting wrong result with "rownum" used. And getting correct result when "fetch first row" is used.

Example:

SELECT .. WHERE .. ORDER BY ..;

FO F
-- -
aa W       >>>> output expected when using rownum
aa X
bb X
aa W
aa X
aa W
aa W
aa W
cc E
bb X

 


SELECT * FROM (SELECT ... ORDER BY ..) WHERE ROWNUM < 2;   

FO F
-- -
bb X

 

SELECT  .. FROM <table_name> WHERE .. ORDER BY ..) fetch first row only;   

FO F
-- -
aa W

 

Changes

 select from (... order by ...) where rownum = 1

returns not the "expected" row.

Cause

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In this Document
Symptoms
Changes
Cause
Solution
References


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