The following query returns information about the employee that appears first when employees are sorted by last name:

SELECT FIRST *
   FROM Employees
   ORDER BY Surname;

The following query returns the first five employees as sorted by last name:

SELECT TOP 5 *
   FROM Employees
   ORDER BY Surname;

When you use TOP, you can also use START AT to provide an offset. The following statement lists the fifth and sixth employees sorted in descending order by last name:

SELECT TOP 2 START AT 5 *
   FROM Employees
   ORDER BY Surname DESC;

FIRST and TOP should be used only in conjunction with an ORDER BY clause to ensure consistent results. Use of FIRST or TOP without an ORDER BY triggers a syntax warning, and will likely yield unpredictable results.