Second Highest Salary

Finds the second largest salary using SQL.

Source data — Pattern 11: Interview SQL Patterns

All queries run against the shared employees table (see schema.sql). Topics 71 and 72 introduce an orders table to solve consecutive records and gaps-and-islands problems. Topics 73 and 74 introduce a monthly_sales table to demonstrate PIVOT and UNPIVOT operations.

Second Highest Salary — source table 1

Second Highest Salary — source table 2

Second Highest Salary — source table 3

Second Highest Salary — source table 4

What it does

Finds the second largest salary using SQL.

Problem

Find the second highest salary.

SELECT MAX(salary) AS second_highest
FROM employees
WHERE salary < (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees);

Result

Second Highest Salary — result 5