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MS Access 2003: Retrieve Top N records from a query

This MSAccess tutorial explains how to create a query to retrieve the Top N records in Access 2003 (with screenshots and step-by-step instructions).

Question: In Microsoft Access 2003/XP/2000/97, I'd like to retrieve only the first 4 records from a query. How can I do this?

Answer: We'll demonstrate how to do this with an example below.

We have a query as follows:

As you can see that we get more than 4 records returned.

To limit the results of this Access query to only display the first 4 records, we need to open the query in Design view.

Then under the View menu, select Properties.

When the Query Properties window appears, change the "Top Values" property to 4.

Now when we run our query, only the first 4 records are returned.