What is the best way to create and populate a numbers table?

Question

I\'ve seen many different ways to create and populate a numbers table. However, what is the best way to create and populate one? With \"best\" being defined from most to l

Answer 1

I start with the following template, which is derived from numerous printings of Itzik Ben-Gan's routine:

;WITH
  Pass0 as (select 1 as C union all select 1), --2 rows
  Pass1 as (select 1 as C from Pass0 as A, Pass0 as B),--4 rows
  Pass2 as (select 1 as C from Pass1 as A, Pass1 as B),--16 rows
  Pass3 as (select 1 as C from Pass2 as A, Pass2 as B),--256 rows
  Pass4 as (select 1 as C from Pass3 as A, Pass3 as B),--65536 rows
  Pass5 as (select 1 as C from Pass4 as A, Pass4 as B),--4,294,967,296 rows
  Tally as (select row_number() over(order by C) as Number from Pass5)
 select Number from Tally where Number <= 1000000

The "WHERE N<= 1000000" clause limits the output to 1 to 1 million, and can easily be adjusted to your desired range.

Since this is a WITH clause, it can be worked into an INSERT... SELECT... like so:

--  Sample use: create one million rows
CREATE TABLE dbo.Example (ExampleId  int  not null)  

DECLARE @RowsToCreate int
SET @RowsToCreate = 1000000

--  "Table of numbers" data generator, as per Itzik Ben-Gan (from multiple sources)
;WITH
  Pass0 as (select 1 as C union all select 1), --2 rows
  Pass1 as (select 1 as C from Pass0 as A, Pass0 as B),--4 rows
  Pass2 as (select 1 as C from Pass1 as A, Pass1 as B),--16 rows
  Pass3 as (select 1 as C from Pass2 as A, Pass2 as B),--256 rows
  Pass4 as (select 1 as C from Pass3 as A, Pass3 as B),--65536 rows
  Pass5 as (select 1 as C from Pass4 as A, Pass4 as B),--4,294,967,296 rows
  Tally as (select row_number() over(order by C) as Number from Pass5)
INSERT Example (ExampleId)
 select Number
  from Tally
  where Number <= @RowsToCreate

Indexing the table after it's built will be the fastest way to index it.

Oh, and I'd refer to it as a "Tally" table. I think this is a common term, and you can find loads of tricks and examples by Googling it.