You can use a subquery for this like
select *
from
( select *
from emp
order by sal desc )
where ROWNUM <= 5;
Have also a look at the topic On ROWNUM and limiting results at Oracle/AskTom for more information.
Update:
To limit the result with both lower and upper bounds things get a bit more bloated with
select * from
( select a.*, ROWNUM rnum from
( <your_query_goes_here, with order by> ) a
where ROWNUM <= :MAX_ROW_TO_FETCH )
where rnum >= :MIN_ROW_TO_FETCH;
(Copied from specified AskTom-article)
Update 2:
Starting with Oracle 12c (12.1) there is a syntax available to limit rows or start at offsets.
SELECT *
FROM sometable
ORDER BY name
OFFSET 20 ROWS FETCH NEXT 10 ROWS ONLY;
See this answer for more examples. Thanks to Krumia for the hint.
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B28359_01/java.111/b31224/urls.htm#BEIDHCBA
Thin-style Service Name Syntax
Thin-style service names are supported only by the JDBC Thin driver. The syntax is:
@//host_name:port_number/service_name
For example:
jdbc:oracle:thin:scott/tiger@//myhost:1521/myservicename
So I would try:
jdbc:oracle:thin:@//oracle.hostserver2.mydomain.ca:1522/ABCD
Also, per Robert Greathouse's answer, you can also specify the TNS name in the JDBC URL as below:
jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION =(ADDRESS_LIST =(ADDRESS =(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=blah.example.com)(PORT=1521)))(CONNECT_DATA=(SID=BLAHSID)(GLOBAL_NAME=BLAHSID.WORLD)(SERVER=DEDICATED)))
Best Answer
Assuming a Windows installation, do please refer to this:
http://www.oracle-base.com/articles/misc/ManualOracleUninstall.php
Calling additional attention to some great comments that were left here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ORACLEkey from the registry.%ORACLE_HOME%.%PATH%.This set of instructions happens to match an almost identical process that I had reverse-engineered myself over the years after a few messed-up Oracle installs, and has almost always met the need.
Note that even if the OUI is no longer available or doesn't work, simply following the remaining steps should still be sufficient.
(Revision #7 reverted as to not misquote the original source, and to not remove credit to the other comments that contributed to the answer. Further edits are appreciated (and then please remove this comment), if a way can be found to maintain these considerations.)