Getting random rows in Big Query with different limit?

Question

I have the following queries :

SELECT * FROM `datafusiontest-2897325.mergedquery.test_table LIMIT 10
SELECT * FROM `datafusiontest-2897325.mergedquery.test_table LIMIT 100
SELECT * FROM `datafusiontest-2897325.mergedquery.test_table LIMIT 10000

I am getting a different top result for each query.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 24 '20 at 09:29

As your query is not specifying an order, it is normal for results to be different each time - they are returning random rows from your table which meet the qualifying criteria.

To get the same top n returned you should add an ORDER BY clause, for example:

SELECT * 
FROM `datafusiontest-2897325.mergedquery.test_table`
ORDER BY date
LIMIT 10

Getting random rows in Big Query with different limit?

1 Answers1