select Nth to Mth record from a table

select top 10 * from (select top 40 * from tb desc) asc select top 40 * from A where id not in(select top 30 id from A) which of above 2 is more efficient? why? in sql 2005+ ,you should use SELECT col1, col2 FROM ( SELECT col1, col2, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY ID) AS RowNum FROM MyTable ) AS MyDerivedTable WHERE MyDerivedTable.RowNum BETWEEN @startRow AND @endRow