How to Get Second Highest Value in SQL

Find the second highest salary or value using subquery or LIMIT OFFSET.

Quick Answer

SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees WHERE salary < (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees);

Explanation

The subquery approach finds the max excluding the actual max. LIMIT OFFSET skips the first result. DENSE_RANK handles ties correctly.

Query Variants

Subquery

SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees
WHERE salary < (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees);

Limit Offset

SELECT DISTINCT salary FROM employees
ORDER BY salary DESC
LIMIT 1 OFFSET 1;

Nth Highest

SELECT salary FROM (
  SELECT salary, DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) as rank
  FROM employees
) ranked WHERE rank = 2;

Pro Tips

• Use DENSE_RANK for handling ties
• DISTINCT prevents duplicate results
• Adjust OFFSET for Nth highest value

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