Is there an alternate (newer) way to select value 9 from table containing values 1-10 instead of usign MAX?

Question

I have a table with one column (rowID) and ten rows. The values are the numbers 1 thru 10. I want to select 9. I used the MAX function as follows:
create table #tmp1(rowID int)
insert into #tmp1
values(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9),(10)
select MAX(rowID) as rwID from #tmp1
where rowID < (select MAX(rowID) from #tmp1)
--Is there any built in function that can perform this operation -- without the subquery?
Rich P

Answer 1

create table #tmp1(rowID int)
insert into #tmp1
values(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9),(10)
--select MAX(rowID) as rwID from #tmp1
--where rowID < (select MAX(rowID) from #tmp1)
--row_number in a derived table
select RowID from (
Select rowID,row_number() Over(Order by rowID DESC) rn from #tmp1) t
Where rn=2
--row_number in a CTE
;with mycte as (
Select rowID
,row_number() Over(Order by rowID DESC) rn from #tmp1
SELECT RowID
FROM mycte
WHERE rn = 2
--Lead funtion
;with mycte as (
Select rowID
,Lead(rowID,1) Over(Order by rowID DESC) leadRowID from #tmp1
SELECT top 1 leadRowID
FROM mycte
Order by leadRowID DESC
--Last_Value
;with mycte as (
Select rowID
,Last_Value(rowID) Over(ORDER BY rowID DESC ROWS BETWEEN CURRENT ROW AND 1 FOLLOWING ) LastRowID from #tmp1
SELECT top 1 LastRowID
FROM mycte
Order by LastRowID DESC
--another option to combine top and min
 SELECT min(rowID) 
  FROM (
        SELECT TOP 2 rowID
          FROM #tmp1
         ORDER BY rowID DESC) t
You can check all these solutions on your table and add an index to the column and test again.You may find one that works better for you.
drop table #tmp1