SQL in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition

Name

RANK

Synopsis

Computes a rank in a group for a hypothetical row that you supply. This is not a dense rank. If the group contains rows that rank identically, then it’s possible for ranks to be skipped. If you want a dense rank, use the DENSE_RANK function.

SQL2003 Syntax

In the following syntax, items in the value_list correspond by position to items in the sort_list. Therefore, both lists must have the same number of expressions.

RANK(value_list) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY sort_list)
value_list ::= expression [,expression...]
sort_list ::= sort_item [,sort_item...]
sort_item ::= expression [ASC|DESC] [NULLS FIRST|NULLS LAST]

Oracle

Oracle follows the SQL2003 syntax and implements the following analytic syntax:

RANK( ) OVER ([partitioning] ordering)

For an explanation of the partioning and order clauses, see the section later in this chapter titled Section 4.3.

DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQl, and SQL Server

These platforms do not implement the RANK aggregate function.

Example

The following example determines the rank of the hypothetical new row (num=4, odd=1) within each group of rows from test4, where groups are distinguished by the values in the odd column:

SELECT * FROM test4;
       NUM        ODD
---------- ----------
         0          0
         1          1
         2          0
         3          1
         3          1
         4          0
         5          1
SELECT odd, RANK(4,1) WITHIN GROUP (ORDER BY num, odd)
FROM test4
GROUP BY odd;
       ODD RANK(4,1)WITHINGROUP(ORDERBYNUM,ODD)
---------- ------------------------------------
         0                                    4
         1                                    4

In both cases, the rank of the hypothetical new row is 4. In group odd=0, the new row comes ...