How to determine position of row in sql result-set?

Question

i have a sql query:

select id, name from table order by name

result looks like this:

52 arnold 
33 berta 
34 chris 
47 dori         


        

Answer 1

The answer depends on which version of SQL you are using.

If you are using MSSQL 2005 you can use the the new analytical function ROW_NUMBER () which generates the sequential number in order which we define in order by clause. The syntax of ROW_NUMBER () function is:

ROW_NUMBER () OVER (ORDER BY )

or

ROW_NUMBER () OVER (PARTITION BY )

If you are using an older version of SQL Server you can create a temp table with an identity column and select the results from that.