Ranking Functions (Transact-SQL)

Ranking functions return a ranking value for each row in a partition. Depending on the function that is used, some rows might receive the same value as other rows. Ranking functions are nondeterministic.

Transact-SQL provides the following ranking functions:

RANK	NTILE
DENSE_RANK	ROW_NUMBER

Examples

The following shows the four ranking functions used in the same query. See each ranking function for function specific examples.

USE AdventureWorks;
GO
SELECT c.FirstName, c.LastName
    ,ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.PostalCode) AS 'Row Number'
    ,RANK() OVER (ORDER BY a.PostalCode) AS 'Rank'
    ,DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY a.PostalCode) AS 'Dense Rank'
    ,NTILE(4) OVER (ORDER BY a.PostalCode) AS 'Quartile'
    ,s.SalesYTD, a.PostalCode
FROM Sales.SalesPerson s 
    INNER JOIN Person.Contact c 
        ON s.SalesPersonID = c.ContactID
    INNER JOIN Person.Address a 
        ON a.AddressID = c.ContactID
WHERE TerritoryID IS NOT NULL 
    AND SalesYTD <> 0;

Here is the result set.

FirstName	LastName	Row Number	Rank	Dense Rank	Quartile	SalesYTD	PostalCode
Maciej	Dusza	1	1	1	1	4557045	98027
Shelley	Dyck	2	1	1	1	5200475	98027
Linda	Ecoffey	3	1	1	1	3857164	98027
Carla	Eldridge	4	1	1	1	1764939	98027
Carol	Elliott	5	1	1	2	2811013	98027
Jauna	Elson	6	6	2	2	3018725	98055
Michael	Emanuel	7	6	2	2	3189356	98055
Terry	Eminhizer	8	6	2	3	3587378	98055
Gail	Erickson	9	6	2	3	5015682	98055
Mark	Erickson	10	6	2	3	3827950	98055
Martha	Espinoza	11	6	2	4	1931620	98055
Janeth	Esteves	12	6	2	4	2241204	98055
Twanna	Evans	13	6	2	4	1758386	98055

Change History

Release	History
17 July 2006	New content: Added example that shows using all four ranking functions.

See Also

Reference

Functions (Transact-SQL)
OVER Clause (Transact-SQL)

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance