TOP() has no BOTTOM() -- How to get to the bottom of bottom in T-SQL It is surprising that within T-SQL there is a TOP() but no BOTTOM(). So how can we find the bottom of a set? Lets first recap on what TOP() is meant to achieve. Assume that there is a table called Ducks which has information on Award Winning ducks (Let us never question how they or what they have won these awards for). There are 3 columns, Name , NumberOfAwards and Category . If we win a simple SELECT on the table we get, Steve and Barry are returned because they are the top 2 award winners. You get the idea. Now, what if you want to get the bottom Award winner. There is no BOTTOM() so how can we grab this data. TOP() is affected by the ordering of data. The following T-SQL will return the bottom award winners