Question

I have a T-SQL select statement and I want to auto-increment a column in it (that doesn’t exist in the database)

select dbo.a, dbo.b, dbo.c, select @d:=1; @increment:=@increment+1 AS d

Is this possible?

Answer 1

Assuming you’re using SQL 2005 or later:

SELECT dbo.a, dbo.b, dbo.c, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY GETDATE()) AS d

to order the rows as they are returned form the DB. If you want to specify an order you can do so:

SELECT dbo.a, dbo.b, dbo.c, ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY dbo.a) AS d

For SQL 2000 and earlier you need a unique value to order by:

SELECT dbo.a, dbo.b, dbo.c, (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM dbo d2 WHERE d2.a <= dbo.a) AS d
FROM dbo

or if you don’t need a single SELECT:

SELECT IDENTITY(int,1,1) ID, dbo.a, dbo.b, dbo.c
INTO #Temp
FROM dbo

SELECT * FROM #Temp