How to Add Ranking Positions to Rows with DENSE_RANK() in SQL Database: SQL PostgreSQL Oracle SQL Server MySQL SQLite Operators: DENSE_RANK OVER ORDER BY ASC DESC Problem: You want to add a ranking position to rows consecutively, even if the rows have the same values. Example: Our database has a table named competition with data in the following columns: id (primary key), first_name, last_name, and score. idfirst_namelast_namescore 11JohnThomas345 14MaryJohnson222 16LisaBrown154 23AlanBlake222 32ChrisTaylor154 Let’s display all details about students: their last name, first name, and scores sorted by score in descending order. We don’t want to skip position numbers if some scores are the same for more than one student. Solution 1: SELECT DENSE_RANK() OVER(ORDER BY score DESC) AS d_rank, first_name, last_name, score FROM competition; Notice that the rank ranges from 1 to 3. Discussion: Use DENSE_RANK if you don’t want to skip ranking positions after rows with the same rank. In our example, even though Mary and Alan have the same rank of 2, the position for Lisa is 3. Recommended courses: Window Functions Window Functions in SQL Server Recommended articles: How to Use Rank Functions in SQL SQL Window Functions By Explanation A Gentle Introduction to Common SQL Window Functions See also: How to Add Ranking Positions of Rows in SQL with RANK() How to Eliminate Duplicate Rows in SQL How to Find Duplicate Rows in SQL? Subscribe to our newsletter Join our monthly newsletter to be notified about the latest posts. Email address How Do You Write a SELECT Statement in SQL? What Is a Foreign Key in SQL? Enumerate and Explain All the Basic Elements of an SQL Query