Implement Rank without using analytic function

Teja picture Teja · Oct 20, 2017 · Viewed 9.2k times · Source

I am wondering if there is a method to implement SQL analytic functions without using the inbuilt functions.

SELECT *,
    ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY dept_id ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rownum,
    DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY dept_id ORDER BY salary DESC) AS denserank,
    RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY dept_id ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rnk
FROM emp;

Answer

Gordon Linoff picture Gordon Linoff · Oct 20, 2017

Here are the three equivalent expressions:

select emp.*,
       (select count(*)
        from emp emp2
        where emp2.dept_id = emp.dept_id and
              (emp2.salary > emp.salary or
               emp2.salary = emp.salary and emp2.emp_id <= emp.emp_id
              )
       ) as "row_number",
       (select 1 + count(*)
        from emp emp2
        where emp2.dept_id = emp.dept_id and
              emp2.salary > emp.salary 
              )
       ) as "rank",
       (select count(distinct salary)
        from emp emp2
        where emp2.dept_id = emp.dept_id and
              emp2.salary >= emp.salary
       ) as "dense_rank",
from emp;

This assumes the existence of an emp_id to make the rows unique for "row_number".