ROWNUM can use with ORDER BY clause?

Question

Hi
Following i have two quires in ROWNUM order for example..
1:query
select rownum,empno,ename,deptno from emp
where rownum <= 14;
result:
rownum empno ename deptno
1 7369 SMITH 20
2 7499 ALLEN 30
3 7521 WARD 30
4 7566 JONES 20
5 7654 MARTIN 30
6 7698 BLAKE 30
7 7782 CLARK 10
8 7788 SCOTT 20
9 7839 KING 10
10 7844 TURNER 30
11 7876 ADAMS 20
12 7900 JAMES 30
13 7902 FORD 20
14 7934 MILLER 10
2:Query , add ORDER BY clause it will change the sequence of ROWNUM.
select rownum,empno,ename,deptno from emp
where rownum <= 14
order by deptno;
result:
rownum empno ename deptno
7 7782 CLARK 10
9 7839 KING 10
14 7934 MILLER 10
1 7369 SMITH 20
11 7876 ADAMS 20
13 7902 FORD 20
8 7788 SCOTT 20
and so on......
but i want these records from 2 to 5...how i can query this through ROWNUM or any sequence because ORDER BY clause change the order of ROWNUM and i could get this result.
rownum empno ename deptno
9 7839 KING 10
14 7934 MILLER 10
1 7369 SMITH 20
11 7876 ADAMS 20
please send me general query which i can apply on any table.
advance thanks.

Answer 1

My guess is that you are looking for a pagination solution. If so, here is a thread on Asktom:
http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/asktom/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_ID:127412348064
So, essentially, you ORDER BY first and then write a wrapper to get your the rownum.
If you do it this way, You will also use the top-n optimization that Oracle uses.
Rahul.