RANK (Transact-SQL)
Applies to: 
SQL Server
Azure SQL Database
Azure SQL Managed Instance
Azure Synapse Analytics
Analytics Platform System (PDW)
SQL analytics endpoint in Microsoft Fabric
Warehouse in Microsoft Fabric
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.
ROW_NUMBER and RANK are similar. ROW_NUMBER numbers all rows sequentially (for example 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). RANK provides the same numeric value for ties (for example 1, 2, 2, 4, 5).
Note
RANK is a temporary value calculated when the query is run. To persist numbers in a table, see IDENTITY Property and SEQUENCE.
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 row 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.
RANK is nondeterministic. For more information, see Deterministic and Nondeterministic Functions.
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 AdventureWorks2022;
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's 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 AdventureWorks2022
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's the result set.
BusinessEntityID Rate RankBySalary
---------------- --------------------- --------------------
1 125.50 1
2 63.4615 4
3 43.2692 11
4 29.8462 28
5 32.6923 22
6 32.6923 22
7 50.4808 6
8 40.8654 14
9 40.8654 14
10 42.4808 13
Examples: Azure Synapse Analytics and Analytics Platform System (PDW)
C: Ranking rows within a partition
The following example ranks the sales representatives in each sales territory according to their total sales. The rowset is partitioned by SalesTerritoryGroup and sorted by SalesAmountQuota.
-- Uses AdventureWorks
SELECT LastName, SUM(SalesAmountQuota) AS TotalSales, SalesTerritoryRegion,
RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY SalesTerritoryRegion ORDER BY SUM(SalesAmountQuota) DESC ) AS RankResult
FROM dbo.DimEmployee AS e
INNER JOIN dbo.FactSalesQuota AS sq ON e.EmployeeKey = sq.EmployeeKey
INNER JOIN dbo.DimSalesTerritory AS st ON e.SalesTerritoryKey = st.SalesTerritoryKey
WHERE SalesPersonFlag = 1 AND SalesTerritoryRegion != N'NA'
GROUP BY LastName, SalesTerritoryRegion;
Here's the result set.
LastName TotalSales SalesTerritoryRegion RankResult
---------------- ------------- ------------------- --------
Tsoflias 1687000.0000 Australia 1
Saraiva 7098000.0000 Canada 1
Vargas 4365000.0000 Canada 2
Carson 12198000.0000 Central 1
Varkey Chudukatil 5557000.0000 France 1
Valdez 2287000.0000 Germany 1
Blythe 11162000.0000 Northeast 1
Campbell 4025000.0000 Northwest 1
Ansman-Wolfe 3551000.0000 Northwest 2
Mensa-Annan 2753000.0000 Northwest 3
Reiter 8541000.0000 Southeast 1
Mitchell 11786000.0000 Southwest 1
Ito 7804000.0000 Southwest 2
Pak 10514000.0000 United Kingdom 1
See Also
DENSE_RANK (Transact-SQL)
ROW_NUMBER (Transact-SQL)
NTILE (Transact-SQL)
Ranking Functions (Transact-SQL)
Built-in Functions (Transact-SQL)