You could use the SQL command LIMIT: SELECT * from presidents WHERE terms > 2 LIMIT 10; You can also use the DBI method fetchall_arrayref(), which will return a reference to a list of rows. Use an array slice to get at the ones you want:

# prepare and execute statement
my $array_ref = $sth->fetchall_arrayref();

# we want 0 through 20
foreach my $row (@$array_ref[0 .. 20]) {
    # do something
}
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