Can we select second largest record from a table without using LIMIT clause in MySQL?

Yes, we can select second largest record from a table without using LIMIT clause. Let us first see an example and create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
(
   Number int
);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.66 sec)

Insert records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values(78);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.18 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(67);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.25 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(92);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(98);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(88);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.22 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(86);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(89);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

Following is the query to display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+--------+
| Number |
+--------+
| 78     |
| 67     |
| 92     |
| 98     |
| 88     |
| 86     |
| 89     |
+--------+
7 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to select second largest number from a table without using LIMIT clause −

mysql> SELECT MAX(Number)
  FROM DemoTable
  WHERE Number < (SELECT MAX(Number) FROM DemoTable);

This will produce the following output −

+-------------+
| MAX(Number) |
+-------------+
| 92          |
+-------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)