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

This may help

To obtain a random integer R in the range i <= R < j, use the expression FLOOR(i + RAND() * (j – i)). For example, to obtain a random integer in the range the range 7 <= R < 12, you could use the following statement:

SELECT FLOOR(7 + (RAND() * 5));

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

Weird solution, but...

SELECT 1 UNION SELECT 2 UNION SELECT 3....

Answer 4

Assuming you mean retrieve them from a table, here N is 10, assuming intcolumn is the column with numbers in it.

SELECT intcolumn FROM numbers WHERE intcolumn > 0 LIMIT 10

Edit: In case you were actually looking to get the mathematical set of positive numbers without a table, I would reconsider, it can be intensive (depending on the implementation). Commonly accepted practice seems to be to create a lookup table full of numbers, and then use the above query.