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;/* Highest salary by Department/Location */
SELECT e.ename, e.sal, e.deptno, d.loc
FROM emp e
JOIN dept d
ON e.deptno = d.deptno
WHERE e.sal in
(
select max(sal)
from emp
group by deptno
)