This guide is specifically for SQL Server syntax.

How to Get Second Highest Value in SQL

Find the second highest salary or value using subquery or TOP 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. TOP 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);

TOP Offset

SELECT DISTINCT salary FROM employees
ORDER BY salary DESC
TOP 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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SQL Server-Specific Notes

This page covers SQL Server syntax. Other databases may have different syntax for similar operations.