Syntax

ROW_NUMBER() OVER (
  [ PARTITION BY partition_expression ]
  [ ORDER BY order_list ]
) 

Description

ROW_NUMBER() is a window function that displays the number of a given row, starting at one and following the ORDER BY sequence of the window function, with identical values receiving different row numbers. It is similar to the RANK() and DENSE_RANK() functions except that in that function, identical values will receive the same rank for each result.

Examples

The distinction between DENSE_RANK(), RANK() and ROW_NUMBER():

CREATE TABLE student(course VARCHAR(10), mark int, name varchar(10));

INSERT INTO student VALUES 
  ('Maths', 60, 'Thulile'),
  ('Maths', 60, 'Pritha'),
  ('Maths', 70, 'Voitto'),
  ('Maths', 55, 'Chun'),
  ('Biology', 60, 'Bilal'),
   ('Biology', 70, 'Roger');

SELECT 
  RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY course ORDER BY mark DESC) AS rank, 
  DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY course ORDER BY mark DESC) AS dense_rank, 
  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY course ORDER BY mark DESC) AS row_num, 
  course, mark, name 
FROM student ORDER BY course, mark DESC;
+------+------------+---------+---------+------+---------+
| rank | dense_rank | row_num | course  | mark | name    |
+------+------------+---------+---------+------+---------+
|    1 |          1 |       1 | Biology |   70 | Roger   |
|    2 |          2 |       2 | Biology |   60 | Bilal   |
|    1 |          1 |       1 | Maths   |   70 | Voitto  |
|    2 |          2 |       2 | Maths   |   60 | Thulile |
|    2 |          2 |       3 | Maths   |   60 | Pritha  |
|    4 |          3 |       4 | Maths   |   55 | Chun    |
+------+------------+---------+---------+------+---------+

See Also

• RANK()
• DENSE_RANK()
• ORDER BY