RANK

The RANK() function assigns a unique rank to each value within an ordered group of values.

The rank value starts at 1 and continues up sequentially. If two values are the same, they have the same rank.

Syntax

RANK() OVER (
  [ PARTITION BY <expr1> ]
  ORDER BY <expr2> [ { ASC | DESC } ]
  [ <window_frame> ]
)

Examples

Create the table

CREATE TABLE employees (
  employee_id INT,
  first_name VARCHAR,
  last_name VARCHAR,
  department VARCHAR,
  salary INT
);

Insert data

INSERT INTO employees (employee_id, first_name, last_name, department, salary) VALUES
  (1, 'John', 'Doe', 'IT', 90000),
  (2, 'Jane', 'Smith', 'HR', 85000),
  (3, 'Mike', 'Johnson', 'IT', 82000),
  (4, 'Sara', 'Williams', 'Sales', 77000),
  (5, 'Tom', 'Brown', 'HR', 75000);

Ranking employees by salary

SELECT
  employee_id,
  first_name,
  last_name,
  department,
  salary,
  RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rank
FROM
  employees;

Result:

employee_id	first_name	last_name	department	salary	rank
1	John	Doe	IT	90000	1
2	Jane	Smith	HR	85000	2
3	Mike	Johnson	IT	82000	3
4	Sara	Williams	Sales	77000	4
5	Tom	Brown	HR	75000	5