How to fetch rows from a table like search engines do?

Question

Is it possible to fetch rows from a table like Google does? I want to fetch row number 20-40 after the select has ordered the rows.
Pseudo code: select * from log where rownum > 20 and rownum < 40 order by date;
Rownum doesn't work with ordering so I tried:
select * from log where (select * from log order by date) and rownum <20;
But that still doesn't do what I want. I get the "top 20" rows but I can't get rows 20-40.
My real table has 70000 rows and I want to select 69000-70000 so I really need a SQL do fetch only the rows I need.
Any help would be very appreciated!
Best regards,
Christer Nordvik

Answer 1

SELECT alias_for_rownum, column_names
        FROM   (SELECT ROWNUM AS alias_for_rownum, column_names
                FROM   (SELECT   column_names
                        FROM     table_name
                        ORDER BY columns_to_order_by)
                WHERE  ROWNUM <= last_row_you_want)
        WHERE  alias_for_rownum >= first_row_you_want
Example:
-- (This example uses the Oracle dept demo table.
SET AUTOTRACE ON EXPLAIN
SELECT rn, deptno, dname, loc
        FROM   (SELECT ROWNUM AS rn, deptno, dname, loc
                FROM   (SELECT   deptno, dname, loc
                        FROM     dept
                        ORDER BY deptno)
                WHERE  ROWNUM <= 3)
        WHERE  rn >= 2
                RN     DEPTNO DNAME          LOC
                 2         20 RESEARCH       DALLAS
                 3         30 SALES          CHICAGO