Selecting all records using SQL LIMIT and OFFSET query

Question

I wonder if there is a way to accomplish:

SELECT * FROM table

by using LIMIT and OFFSET like so:

SELECT * FROM table LIMIT all OFFSET 0

Can I write SQL statement using LIMIT and OFFSET but still getting ALL result?

* of course I can use an IF statement but I rather avoid it if possible

Solution 1

From the MySQL documentation:

To retrieve all rows from a certain offset up to the end of the result set, you can use some large number for the second parameter. This statement retrieves all rows from the 96th row to the last:

SELECT * FROM tbl LIMIT 95,18446744073709551615;

So getting all rows might look as follows:

SELECT * FROM tbl LIMIT 0,18446744073709551615;

Solution 2

Yes, it is possible by providing NULL:

SELECT * FROM tab LIMIT NULL OFFSET NULL

db<>fiddle PostgreSQL demo

7.6. LIMIT and OFFSET

LIMIT ALL is the same as omitting the LIMIT clause, as is LIMIT with a NULL argument.

---

Snowflake LIMIT / FETCH

The values NULL, empty string (''), and $$$$ are also accepted and are treated as “unlimited”; this is useful primarily for connectors and drivers (such as the JDBC driver) if they receive an incomplete parameter list when dynamically binding parameters to a statement.

SELECT * FROM demo1 ORDER BY i LIMIT NULL OFFSET NULL;

SELECT * FROM demo1 ORDER BY i LIMIT '' OFFSET '';

SELECT * FROM demo1 ORDER BY i LIMIT $$$$ OFFSET $$$$; 

Solution 3

This may not be the best way to do it, but its the first that comes to mind...

SELECT * FROM myTable LIMIT 0,1000000

Replace 1000000 with some adequately large number that you know will always be larger than the total number of records in the table.

Solution 4

I used this code in nodeJS with MySQL and it's run well, It's may help you. Why you use it?

1. It's reliable because it's a string that will append with query.

2. If you want to set limit then you can put the limitation with the variable otherwise pass 0 with variable.

   var noOfGroupShow=0;  //0: all, rest according to number   
   if (noOfGroupShow == 0) {
       noOfGroupShow = '';
   } 
   else {
       noOfGroupShow = ' LIMIT 0, '+noOfGroupShow;
   }
   var sqlGetUser = "SELECT `user_name`,`first_name`,`last_name`,`image`,`latitude`, `longitude`,`phone`,`gender`,`country`,`status_message`,`dob` as user_date_of_birth FROM `tb_user` WHERE `user_id`=?"+noOfGroupShow;
   

Solution 5

As the record will grow up, use mysql_num_rows to dynamically find total amount of records, instead of using some large number.

$cektotalrec=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM TABLE");
$numoffset=mysql_num_rows($cektotalrec); 
$numlimit="0";

then:

$final="SELECT * FROM table ".$numlimit.", ".$numoffset"";

View more solutions

Comments

[d'alar'cop]

"some large number" - MySQL... terrible

[sroes]

18446744073709551615 isn't just some number though; it's the max value of a bigint

[d'alar'cop]

Yes I thought it would be something of the sort but they should really say that instead of "some large number"... or no?

[Lior Elrom]

Of course that is a reasonable approach however my goal was to avoid if by writing one line of code: $this->db->get($database, $limit, $offset)

[Lior Elrom]

Thx for putting your time.

[twicejr]

I agree. Something like MAX_INT_NUMBER, which could then change depending on the amount of bits in the system processor in the future.

[Peter]

wow why would you use defines instead variables in code like this, its crazy

[user1298923]

PHP will cast a variable containing '18446744073709551615' to type FLOAT, causing the retrieval of only 1 result. Using PHP 7.3.12.

[Crasher]

This is not a reliable solution.