second highest salary

1Both options you find max as a subset and then exclude from main select
2sql> SELECT MAX( col ) FROM table
3 	WHERE col < ( SELECT MAX( col ) FROM table);
4sql> SELECT MAX(col) FROM table 
5WHERE col NOT IN (SELECT MAX(col) FROM table);

1SELECT MAX(SALARY) 'SECOND_MAX' FROM EMPLOYEES
2WHERE SALARY <> (SELECT MAX(SALARY) FROM EMPLOYEES);

1/* sql 2nd highest salary employee */
2select sal, ename
3from emp
4where sal =
5    (
6        select max(sal) from emp where sal <
7            (select max(sal) from emp)
8    )
9----------------------------------------------- option 2
10select *
11from 
12(
13    select ename, sal, dense_rank() over(order by sal desc) rank
14    from emp
15)
16where rank =2;

1SELECT MAX(salary) AS SecondHighestSalaryFROM EmployeeWHERE salary != (SELECT MAX(salary) FROM Employee)