Both options you find max as a subset and then exclude from main select
sql> SELECT MAX( col ) FROM table
WHERE col < ( SELECT MAX( col ) FROM table);
sql> SELECT MAX(col) FROM table
WHERE col NOT IN (SELECT MAX(col) FROM table);/* sql 2nd highest salary employee */
select sal, ename
from emp
where sal =
(
select max(sal) from emp where sal <
(select max(sal) from emp)
)
----------------------------------------------- option 2
select *
from
(
select ename, sal, dense_rank() over(order by sal desc) rank
from emp
)
where rank =2;select *from employee
group by salary
order by salary desc limit 1,1;SELECT firstname, MAX(salary)
FROM department d LEFT OUTER JOIN employee e
ON (d.department_id = e.department_id)
GROUP BY department_id; SELECT first-name
FROM employees
WHERE salary = (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM employees);SELECT MAX(SALARY) 'SECOND_MAX' FROM EMPLOYEES
WHERE SALARY <> (SELECT MAX(SALARY) FROM EMPLOYEES);