RANK (Transact-SQL)
Returns the rank of each row within the partition of a result set. The rank of a row is one plus the number of ranks that come before the row in question.
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Transact-SQL Syntax Conventions
Syntax
RANK ( ) OVER ( [ partition_by_clause ] order_by_clause )
Arguments
- OVER ( [ partition_by_clause ] order_by_clause**)**
partition_by_clause divides the result set produced by the FROM clause into partitions to which the function is applied. If not specified, the function treats all rows of the query result set as a single group. order_by_clause determines the order of the data before the function is applied. The order_by_clause is required. The <rows or range clause> of the OVER clause cannot be specified for the RANK function. For more information, see OVER Clause (Transact-SQL).
Return Types
bigint
Remarks
If two or more rows tie for a rank, each tied rows receives the same rank. For example, if the two top salespeople have the same SalesYTD value, they are both ranked one. The salesperson with the next highest SalesYTD is ranked number three, because there are two rows that are ranked higher. Therefore, the RANK function does not always return consecutive integers.
The sort order that is used for the whole query determines the order in which the rows appear in a result set.
Examples
A. Ranking rows within a partition
The following example ranks the products in inventory the specified inventory locations according to their quantities. The result set is partitioned by LocationID and logically ordered by Quantity. Notice that products 494 and 495 have the same quantity. Because they are tied, they are both ranked one.
USE AdventureWorks2012;
GO
SELECT i.ProductID, p.Name, i.LocationID, i.Quantity
,RANK() OVER
(PARTITION BY i.LocationID ORDER BY i.Quantity DESC) AS Rank
FROM Production.ProductInventory AS i
INNER JOIN Production.Product AS p
ON i.ProductID = p.ProductID
WHERE i.LocationID BETWEEN 3 AND 4
ORDER BY i.LocationID;
GO
Here is the result set.
ProductID Name LocationID Quantity Rank
----------- ---------------------- ------------ -------- ----
494 Paint - Silver 3 49 1
495 Paint - Blue 3 49 1
493 Paint - Red 3 41 3
496 Paint - Yellow 3 30 4
492 Paint - Black 3 17 5
495 Paint - Blue 4 35 1
496 Paint - Yellow 4 25 2
493 Paint - Red 4 24 3
492 Paint - Black 4 14 4
494 Paint - Silver 4 12 5
(10 row(s) affected)
B. Ranking all rows in a result set
The following example returns the top ten employees ranked by their salary. Because a PARTITION BY clause was not specified, the RANK function was applied to all rows in the result set.
USE AdventureWorks2012
SELECT TOP(10) BusinessEntityID, Rate,
RANK() OVER (ORDER BY Rate DESC) AS RankBySalary
FROM HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory AS eph1
WHERE RateChangeDate = (SELECT MAX(RateChangeDate)
FROM HumanResources.EmployeePayHistory AS eph2
WHERE eph1.BusinessEntityID = eph2.BusinessEntityID)
ORDER BY BusinessEntityID;
Here is the result set.
BusinessEntityID Rate RankBySalary
---------------- --------------------- --------------------
1 125.50 1
2 63.4615 4
3 43.2692 8
4 29.8462 19
5 32.6923 16
6 32.6923 16
7 50.4808 6
8 40.8654 10
9 40.8654 10
10 42.4808 9