Question

Is there any way to select from a function and have it return incrementing numbers?

For example, do this:

SELECT SomeColumn, IncrementingNumbersFunction() FROM SomeTable

And have it return:

SomeColumn | IncrementingNumbers
--------------------------------
some text  | 0
something  | 1
foo        | 2

Answer 1

On sql server 2005 and up you can use ROW_NUMBER()

SELECT SomeColumn, 
     ROW_NUMBER() OVER(Order by SomeColumn) as IncrementingNumbers
 FROM SomeTable

0n SQL Server 2000, you can use identity but if you have deletes you will have gaps

SQL 2000 code in case you have gaps in your regular table with an identity column, do an insert into a temp with identity and then select out of it

SELECT SomeColumn, 
     IDENTITY( INT,1,1) AS IncrementingNumbers
     INTO #temp
 FROM SomeTable
 ORDER BY SomeColumn


 SELECT * FROM #temp
 ORDER BY IncrementingNumbers