How to Rank Rows in Oracle
Last updated August 25, 2026 · By the SaturnSQL team
RANK, DENSE_RANK, and ROW_NUMBER all number rows over a window but differ on ties: RANK leaves gaps, DENSE_RANK does not, ROW_NUMBER ignores ties.
SELECT employee_id, salary,
RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) AS rnk,
DENSE_RANK() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) AS dense_rnk,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY salary DESC) AS row_num
FROM employees;How ties are handled
If two employees tie for the highest salary, RANK gives both a 1 and then jumps the next row straight to 3, skipping 2. DENSE_RANK also gives both a 1 but the next distinct salary gets 2, with no gap. ROW_NUMBER hands out 1 and 2 to the tied pair based on an arbitrary tiebreak, which is why it needs a fully deterministic ORDER BY to be reproducible.
Ranking within groups
SELECT department_id, employee_id, salary,
RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY department_id ORDER BY salary DESC) AS dept_rank
FROM employees;Pick RANK when you want 'joint 1st place' style reporting, DENSE_RANK when downstream code expects a contiguous 1..N scale (like a compact tier number), and ROW_NUMBER when you specifically need exactly one row per position.
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