How to find third highest salary in sql server

How to find Third Highest Salary in SQL Server.

To find the third highest salary in SQL Server, we can use similar approaches to those for finding the second highest salary, but adjusted to find the third highest.

Method 1: Using DISTINCT with ORDER BY and OFFSET-FETCH

This method finds the third distinct highest salary.The query sorts the salaries in descending order and skips the top two rows (OFFSET 2 ROWS), then fetches the next row (FETCH NEXT 1 ROW), giving you the third highest salary.

Method 2: Using the ROW_NUMBER() Function

This method is effective when there are duplicates and you want to rank salaries.The ROW_NUMBER() function assigns a unique rank to each salary in descending order, and you filter for the third rank.

Method 3: Using DENSE_RANK()

This method is helpful if there are ties (duplicate salaries) and you still want the third highest distinct value.The DENSE_RANK() function is similar to ROW_NUMBER(), but it assigns the same rank to equal (duplicate) values. This ensures that if there are ties, the correct rank is still returned.