Question

I need, if possible, a t-sql query that, returning the values from an arbitrary table, also returns a incremental integer column with value = 1 for the first row, 2 for the second, and so on.

This column does not actually resides in any table, and must be strictly incremental, because the ORDER BY clause could sort the rows of the table and I want the incremental row in perfect shape always.

The solution must run on SQL Server 2000

Answer 1

For SQL 2005 and up

SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER( ORDER BY SomeColumn ) AS 'rownumber',*     FROM YourTable 

for 2000 you need to do something like this

SELECT IDENTITY(INT, 1,1) AS Rank ,VALUE INTO #Ranks FROM YourTable WHERE 1=0  INSERT INTO #Ranks SELECT SomeColumn  FROM YourTable ORDER BY SomeColumn   SELECT * FROM #Ranks Order By Ranks 

see also here Row Number