Task: Top rank per group
C#: using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;

public class Program
{
    class Employee
    {
        public Employee(string name, string id, int salary, string department)
        {
            Name = name;
            Id = id;
            Salary = salary;
            Department = department;
        }

        public string Name { get; private set; }
        public string Id { get; private set; }
        public int Salary { get; private set; }
        public string Department { get; private set; }

        public override string ToString()
        {
            return String.Format("{0, -25}\t{1}\t{2}", Name, Id, Salary);
        }
    }

    private static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var employees = new List<Employee>
                        {
                            new Employee("Tyler Bennett", "E10297", 32000, "D101"),
                            new Employee("John Rappl", "E21437", 47000, "D050"),
                            new Employee("George Woltman", "E21437", 53500, "D101"),
                            new Employee("Adam Smith", "E21437", 18000, "D202"),
                            new Employee("Claire Buckman", "E39876", 27800, "D202"),
                            new Employee("David McClellan", "E04242", 41500, "D101"),
                            new Employee("Rich Holcomb", "E01234", 49500, "D202"),
                            new Employee("Nathan Adams", "E41298", 21900, "D050"),
                            new Employee("Richard Potter", "E43128", 15900, "D101"),
                            new Employee("David Motsinger", "E27002", 19250, "D202"),
                            new Employee("Tim Sampair", "E03033", 27000, "D101"),
                            new Employee("Kim Arlich", "E10001", 57000, "D190"),
                            new Employee("Timothy Grove", "E16398", 29900, "D190")
                        };

        DisplayTopNPerDepartment(employees, 2);
    }

    static void DisplayTopNPerDepartment(IEnumerable<Employee> employees, int n)
    {
        var topSalariesByDepartment =
            from employee in employees
            group employee by employee.Department
            into g
            select new
                    {
                        Department = g.Key,
                        TopEmployeesBySalary = g.OrderByDescending(e => e.Salary).Take(n)
                    };

        foreach (var x in topSalariesByDepartment)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Department: " + x.Department);
            foreach (var employee in x.TopEmployeesBySalary)
                Console.WriteLine(employee);
            Console.WriteLine("----------------------------");
        }
    }
}

VB: Private Sub top_rank(filename As String, n As Integer)
    Workbooks.OpenText filename:=filename, Comma:=True
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Set ws = Sheets.Add: ws.Name = "output"
    ActiveWorkbook.PivotCaches.Create(SourceType:=xlDatabase, SourceData:= _
        "data!R1C1:R14C4", Version:=6).CreatePivotTable TableDestination:= _
        "output!R3C1", TableName:="TableName", DefaultVersion:=6
    With Sheets("output").PivotTables("TableName")
        .InGridDropZones = True
        .RowAxisLayout xlTabularRow
        .AddDataField Sheets("output").PivotTables("TableName"). _
                PivotFields("Salary"), "Top rank", xlSum
        .PivotFields("Department").Orientation = xlRowField
        .PivotFields("Department").Position = 1
        .PivotFields("Salary").Orientation = xlRowField
        .PivotFields("Salary").Position = 2
        .PivotFields("Employee Name").Orientation = xlRowField
        .PivotFields("Employee Name").Position = 3
        .PivotFields("Employee ID").Orientation = xlRowField
        .PivotFields("Employee ID").Position = 4
        .PivotFields("Salary").PivotFilters.Add2 Type:=xlTopCount, _
            DataField:=Sheets("output").PivotTables("TableName"). _
            PivotFields("Top rank"), Value1:=n
        .PivotFields("Salary").Subtotals = Array(False, False, False, False, _
            False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False)
        .PivotFields("Employee Name").Subtotals = Array(False, False, False, _
            False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False)
        .PivotFields("Department").Subtotals = Array(False, False, False, False, _
            False, False, False, False, False, False, False, False)
        .ColumnGrand = False
        .PivotFields("Salary").AutoSort xlDescending, "Salary"
    End With
End Sub

Public Sub main()
    top_rank filename:="D:\data.txt", n:=3
End Sub