Sybase: Limit return not use rowcount ?

[kevin_sauerwald]

is there a way to make sybase limit what it looks for ? I know rowcount will
make it only return so many rows.. but that wont make it stop searching the
whole DB before it does it..

I have people running wide open queries that kill the system and they
will keep on doing it once and a while.. impossible to stop.. I wish I could..

so I tried rowcount, but thats no good.. it only limits what it spits out now how many it searches.. so is there a way to say after you found x rows, just stop ? or only look through 500k entries and return.. anything to make it
stop finding way more than it can handle before it tries to rowcount chop it ?

anyone ?

[EmileA]

In sybase there is a statement you issue before launching your query.
This statement tells the max number of rows to spit out.

Use

SET ROWCOUNT 10

To only see the first ten rows

But I am not sure if it cures your problem.

[kevin_sauerwald]

nope.. rowcount tells it to only split out x amount of rows.. it will still find
50k and only then return 10 or whatever. I need to stop it from finding way
way way too many.. by then its too late and the system is hung..

I kinda want it to say hey once you find the first 300.. just stop looking.