Row_Number function in SQL Server

Suggested Videos
Part 106 - Grouping_Id function in SQL Server
Part 107 - Debugging sql server stored procedures
Part 108 - Over clause in SQL Server



In this video we will discuss Row_Number function in SQL Server. This is continuation to Part 108. Please watch Part 108 from SQL Server tutorial before proceeding.



Row_Number function

• Introduced in SQL Server 2005
• Returns the sequential number of a row starting at 1
• ORDER BY clause is required
• PARTITION BY clause is optional
• When the data is partitioned, row number is reset to 1 when the partition changes

Syntax : ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY Col1, Col2)

Row_Number function without PARTITION BY : In this example, data is not partitioned, so ROW_NUMBER will provide a consecutive numbering for all the rows in the table based on the order of rows imposed by the ORDER BY clause.

SELECT Name, Gender, Salary,

        ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY Gender) AS RowNumber

FROM Employees



Please note : If ORDER BY clause is not specified you will get the following error
The function 'ROW_NUMBER' must have an OVER clause with ORDER BY

Row_Number function with PARTITION BY : In this example, data is partitioned by Gender, so ROW_NUMBER will provide a consecutive numbering only for the rows with in a parttion. When the partition changes the row number is reset to 1.

SELECT Name, Gender, Salary,

        ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY Gender ORDER BY Gender) AS RowNumber

FROM Employees



Use case for Row_Number function : Deleting all duplicate rows except one from a sql server table. 

Discussed in detail in Part 4 of SQL Server Interview Questions and Answers video series.