Return only the first x rows we need

SELECT * | <value1>, <value2>
FROM <table_name>
LIMIT <n>;

It's like saying: "Hey, PostgreSQL; please can you find this information for me? It's in this table in this schema. When you find it, please only read back the first few records that match my criteria"

For example, if we wanted to return the first 5 customers in the table:

SELECT *
FROM "sequel-mart-schema"."Customers"
LIMIT 5;

We can combine this with the WHERE clause to return a sample of matching data

SELECT *
FROM "sequel-mart-schema"."Customers"
WHERE date_joined >= '2021-08-01'
LIMIT 5;

Returns the first 5 customers in the table who joined after 1st August 2021

We can also combine this with the ORDER BY clause to return the 5 most recent customers

SELECT *
FROM "sequel-mart-schema"."Customers"
WHERE date_joined >= '2021-08-01'
ORDER BY date_joined DESC
LIMIT 5;

Notes:

• This dramatically reduces the time it takes to return results from a large table
• It also consumes fewer resources