Query for selecting second maximum salary from a table

Many a times i heard that it is the most asking questions by the mainframe opportunity seeker that "Query for selecting second maximum salary from a table"
here is the code

SELECT MAX(SAL) FROM EMP WHERE SAL < (SELECT MAX(SAL) FROM EMP);
Where SAL is the salary column,
EMP is the name of table.
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Find out Nth highest salary from emp table

SELECT DISTINCT (a.sal) FROM EMP A WHERE &N = (SELECT COUNT (DISTINCT (b.sal)) FROM EMP B WHERE a.sal<=b.sal);

lets take an example:
EMP
e_no e_name sal
-------------------------
001 ram 15000
002 shyam 35000
003 hari 5000
004 krishna 20000
005 rahul 25000



eg:-
a= 3;
20000
hope this will help