Summary  
This chapter explains how to use the LIMIT clause in a SELECT query to restrict the number of rows returned.  

General domain of usage  
Relational database querying

We know that the `SELECT` operator can retrieve all rows from a table of all or the specific columns. However, what if we only need to fetch a specific number of rows?

We can do it using the `LIMIT` clause. It is always used at the end of the query. Here is the syntax for it:

```sql
SELECT columns
FROM table 
LIMIT number_of_rows;
```

In the example below, we extract the first 7 rows (in our case, **the capitals of the countries**) from the column:

import unittest
import psycopg2
import pandas as pd

class TestTask(unittest.TestCase):
    @classmethod
    def setUpClass(cls):
        cls.connection = psycopg2.connect(
            host="localhost",
            user="agent",
            password="qwerty",
            dbname="testdb",
            sslmode="disable"
        )
        cls.cursor = cls.connection.cursor()

    def setUp(self):
        with open("query.sql", "r") as f:
            self.query = f.read()

    def test_result_three_distinct(self):
        """Check that query returns exactly 3 distinct continent values."""
        self.cursor.execute(self.query)
        rows = self.cursor.fetchall()
        continents = [row[0] for row in rows]
        unique_continents = set([c for c in continents if c is not None])
        correct_length = len(rows) == 3
        correct_distinct = len(unique_continents) == 3
        _dynamic_test(
            self,
            correct_length and correct_distinct,
            "Query returns exactly 3 distinct continent values.",
            f"Query must return exactly 3 distinct continent values. Got {len(rows)} rows and {len(unique_continents)} unique continents."
        )
    
    def test_select_distinct_used(self):
        """Check if SELECT DISTINCT is used on the continent column."""
        query = self.query.lower().replace("\\n", " ").replace("\t", " ")
        has_select_distinct = "distinct" in query
        _dynamic_test(
            self,
            has_select_distinct,
            "Query uses the DISTINCT keyword.",
            "Query must use the DISTINCT keyword."
        )

    def test_column_name_is_continent(self):
        """Check that the output column is named 'continent'."""
        self.cursor.execute(self.query)
        columns = [desc[0].lower() for desc in self.cursor.description]
        _dynamic_test(
            self,
            columns == ["continent"],
            "Output column is named 'continent'.",
            f"Output column should be named 'continent', got {columns}."
        )

def _dynamic_test(test_case, condition, success_message, failure_message):
    if condition:
        test_case._testMethodName = success_message
        test_case.assertTrue(True, success_message)
    else:
        test_case._testMethodName = failure_message
        test_case.fail(failure_message)

def normalize_text(text):
    text = text.lower()
    text = re.sub(r"\s{2,}", " ", text)
    text = re.sub(r"\s*([,:?])\s*", r"\1 ", text)
    return text.strip()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    unittest.main()


test_solution.py

Learn the core fundamentals of SQL and relational databases. Understand how databases store and organize data, write basic SQL queries, work with tables and perform essential operations. Build a strong foundation for working with databases in backend development.

Limiting Results

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