>H! I'm new at using MS SQL and I would like to find out if it is possible to retrieve only the first 10 records of a table regardless of column values.

The easiest way would be to use the TOP clause with a SELECT statement. The problem is that the TOP clause required the use of an ORDER BY. Straight off the top of my head, the only way to pull the first 10 rows in natural order would be to use a CURSOR. BTW, if the table does not have a clustered index, it is possible that SQL Server may physically move rows as updates are made to them.

Do you have control over the structure of the table? Can you add an identity column that could just be used to simulate a record number?

-Mike