SQL SELECT to get the first N positive integers

Question

I need to get a result set containing the first N positive integers. Is it possible to use only standard SQL SELECT statement to get them (without any count table provided)?

Answer 1

Take a look at the following SO questions:

• How to generate a range of numbers in Mysql
• generate an integer sequence in MySQL

Edit:

Another aproach is to create a stored procedure that does that for you. PostgreSQL contains a function generate_series(start, stop) that does what you want.

select * from generate_series(2,4);
 generate_series
-----------------
               2
               3
               4
(3 rows)

I'm not familar with MySQL but somthing like that should be easy to implement, if you are okay with SPs. This site shows an implemetation.