Get top 3 records for each ...

to relate my question to the pubs DB...

I want to return up to 3 titles for each publisher. The criteria

So if a publisher only has
1 title = return 1
2 titles = return 2
3 titles = return 3
4 titles = return only 3
>4 titles = return only 3

To make it more interesting, lets return the first 3 alphabetically as well...

ThanksTry this:

select * from titles a
where title_id in
(select top 3 title_id
from titles b
where a.pub_id = b.pub_id)
order by pub_id|||/*
JUST A LITTLE ADJUSTED
*/

select
case when t.title_id=(
select min( t3.title_id)
from titles t3
where t3.pub_id = t.pub_id and t3.title=(select min(t4.title) from titles t4 where t4.pub_id = t3.pub_id)
)
then p.pub_name else '' end
,t.title
from titles t
join publishers p on t.pub_id=p.pub_id
where title_id in
(
select top 3 t2.title_id
from titles t2
where t2.pub_id = t.pub_id
order by t2.title
)
order by p.pub_name,t.title