The "First" command is often used for sampling data and is totally different
to TOP which returns the first of the total result set.

I have never personally used FIRST, but the ROWID is an excellent idea !
I don't really care how it is achieved, as long as I can select a record
set, and have only records 21-30 returned (for example).

> Your suggestion for first allows the server to return any 10 random rows

it

> chooses, presumably different each time. I don't think this is useful.

Pete
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