ROW_NUMBER (Transact-SQL)
Returns the sequential number of a row within a partition of a result set, starting at 1 for the first row in each partition.
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Syntax
ROW_NUMBER () OVER ( [ <partition_by_clause> ] <order_by_clause> )
Arguments
<partition_by_clause>
Divides the result set produced by the FROM clause into partitions to which the ROW_NUMBER function is applied. For the PARTITION BY syntax, see OVER Clause (Transact-SQL).<order_by_clause>
Determines the order in which the ROW_NUMBER value is assigned to the rows in a partition. For more information, see ORDER BY Clause (Transact-SQL). An integer cannot represent a column when the <order_by_clause> is used in a ranking function.
Return Types
bigint
Remarks
The ORDER BY clause determines the sequence in which the rows are assigned their unique ROW_NUMBER within a specified partition.
Examples
A. Returning the row number for salespeople
The following example returns the ROW_NUMBER for the salespeople in AdventureWorks based on the year-to-date sales.
SELECT FirstName, LastName, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY SalesYTD DESC) AS 'Row Number', SalesYTD, PostalCode
FROM Sales.vSalesPerson
WHERE TerritoryName IS NOT NULL AND SalesYTD <> 0;
B. Returning a subset of rows
The following example returns rows with numbers 50 to 60 inclusive in the order of the OrderDate.
USE AdventureWorks;
GO
WITH OrderedOrders AS
(
SELECT SalesOrderID, OrderDate,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY OrderDate) AS 'RowNumber'
FROM Sales.SalesOrderHeader
)
SELECT *
FROM OrderedOrders
WHERE RowNumber BETWEEN 50 AND 60;
C. Using ROW_NUMBER() with PARTITION
The following example shows using the ROW_NUMBER function with the PARTITION BY argument.
SELECT FirstName, LastName, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY PostalCode ORDER BY SalesYTD DESC) AS 'Row Number', SalesYTD, PostalCode
FROM Sales.vSalesPerson
WHERE TerritoryName IS NOT NULL AND SalesYTD <> 0;