OFFSET FETCH in SQL Server: paging

OFFSET FETCH skips N rows then takes M. It is paging. It needs ORDER BY. For “the five biggest” you still want TOP.

Page of customers

SELECT customer_id, first_name, last_name, email
FROM Customers
ORDER BY last_name, customer_id
OFFSET 20 ROWS FETCH NEXT 10 ROWS ONLY;

Page 3 if the page size is 10. Without a stable ORDER BY (include the key), page 2 can overlap page 1 after an insert.

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