Good reference links for the TOP Keyword

This past week I needed to use the TOP keyword for some code and came across some excellent resources:

First, the quick basics of top:

Dynamically controlling the number of rows affected by a SQL Server query

Next, a good article on how to retrieve top and bottom rows together:

How to Retrieve TOP and BOTTOM Rows Together using T-SQL

And an excellent article on the TOP per group scenario:

Who’s On First? Solving the Top per Group Problem

And the book Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2008 T-SQL Querying there is a whole chapter mostly on TOP; Chapter 9 TOP and APPLY.

TOP isn’t something used everyday in SQL Server, but when you need it, you’ll be happy it’s part of TSQL.