---
title: "Ranking Functions (Transact-SQL) | Microsoft Docs"
ms.custom: ""
ms.date: "03/15/2017"
ms.prod: "sql-non-specified"
ms.reviewer: ""
ms.suite: ""
ms.technology: 
  - "database-engine"
ms.tgt_pltfrm: ""
ms.topic: "language-reference"
dev_langs: 
  - "TSQL"
helpviewer_keywords: 
  - "ranking functions"
  - "row ranking [SQL Server]"
  - "functions [SQL Server], ranking"
  - "ranking rows"
ms.assetid: e7f917ba-bf4a-4fe0-b342-a91bcf88a71b
caps.latest.revision: 31
author: "BYHAM"
ms.author: "rickbyh"
manager: "jhubbard"
---
# Ranking Functions (Transact-SQL)
[!INCLUDE[tsql-appliesto-ss2012-xxxx-xxxx-xxx_md](../../includes/tsql-appliesto-ss2012-xxxx-xxxx-xxx-md.md)]

  Ranking functions return a ranking value for each row in a partition. Depending on the function that is used, some rows might receive the same value as other rows. Ranking functions are nondeterministic.  
  
 [!INCLUDE[tsql](../../includes/tsql-md.md)] provides the following ranking functions:  
  
|||  
|-|-|  
|[RANK](../../t-sql/functions/rank-transact-sql.md)|[NTILE](../../t-sql/functions/ntile-transact-sql.md)|  
|[DENSE_RANK](../../t-sql/functions/dense-rank-transact-sql.md)|[ROW_NUMBER](../../t-sql/functions/row-number-transact-sql.md)|  
  
## Examples  
 The following shows the four ranking functions used in the same query. For function specific examples, see each ranking function.  
  
```  
USE AdventureWorks2012;  
GO  
SELECT p.FirstName, p.LastName  
    ,ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY a.PostalCode) AS "Row Number"  
    ,RANK() OVER (ORDER BY a.PostalCode) AS Rank  
    ,DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY a.PostalCode) AS "Dense Rank"  
    ,NTILE(4) OVER (ORDER BY a.PostalCode) AS Quartile  
    ,s.SalesYTD  
    ,a.PostalCode  
FROM Sales.SalesPerson AS s   
    INNER JOIN Person.Person AS p   
        ON s.BusinessEntityID = p.BusinessEntityID  
    INNER JOIN Person.Address AS a   
        ON a.AddressID = p.BusinessEntityID  
WHERE TerritoryID IS NOT NULL AND SalesYTD <> 0;  
```  
  
 [!INCLUDE[ssResult](../../includes/ssresult-md.md)]  
  
|FirstName|LastName|Row Number|Rank|Dense Rank|Quartile|SalesYTD|PostalCode|  
|---------------|--------------|----------------|----------|----------------|--------------|--------------|----------------|  
|Michael|Blythe|1|1|1|1|4557045.0459|98027|  
|Linda|Mitchell|2|1|1|1|5200475.2313|98027|  
|Jillian|Carson|3|1|1|1|3857163.6332|98027|  
|Garrett|Vargas|4|1|1|1|1764938.9859|98027|  
|Tsvi|Reiter|5|1|1|2|2811012.7151|98027|  
|Shu|Ito|6|6|2|2|3018725.4858|98055|  
|José|Saraiva|7|6|2|2|3189356.2465|98055|  
|David|Campbell|8|6|2|3|3587378.4257|98055|  
|Tete|Mensa-Annan|9|6|2|3|1931620.1835|98055|  
|Lynn|Tsoflias|10|6|2|3|1758385.926|98055|  
|Rachel|Valdez|11|6|2|4|2241204.0424|98055|  
|Jae|Pak|12|6|2|4|5015682.3752|98055|  
|Ranjit|Varkey Chudukatil|13|6|2|4|3827950.238|98055|  
  
## See Also  
 [Built-in Functions &#40;Transact-SQL&#41;](~/t-sql/functions/functions.md)   
 [OVER Clause &#40;Transact-SQL&#41;](../../t-sql/queries/select-over-clause-transact-sql.md)