Rank function in MySQL
One option is to use a ranking variable, such as the following:
SELECT first_name,
age,
gender,
@curRank := @curRank + 1 AS rank
FROM person p, (SELECT @curRank := 0) r
ORDER BY age;
The (SELECT @curRank := 0) part allows the variable initialization without requiring a separate SET command.
Test case:
CREATE TABLE person (id int, first_name varchar(20), age int, gender char(1));
INSERT INTO person VALUES (1, 'Bob', 25, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (2, 'Jane', 20, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (3, 'Jack', 30, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (4, 'Bill', 32, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (5, 'Nick', 22, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (6, 'Kathy', 18, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (7, 'Steve', 36, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (8, 'Anne', 25, 'F');
Result:
+------------+------+--------+------+
| first_name | age | gender | rank |
+------------+------+--------+------+
| Kathy | 18 | F | 1 |
| Jane | 20 | F | 2 |
| Nick | 22 | M | 3 |
| Bob | 25 | M | 4 |
| Anne | 25 | F | 5 |
| Jack | 30 | M | 6 |
| Bill | 32 | M | 7 |
| Steve | 36 | M | 8 |
+------------+------+--------+------+
8 rows in set (0.02 sec)
Here is a generic solution that assigns dense rank over partition to rows. It uses user variables:
CREATE TABLE person (
id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
firstname VARCHAR(10),
gender VARCHAR(1),
age INT
);
INSERT INTO person (id, firstname, gender, age) VALUES
(1, 'Adams', 'M', 33),
(2, 'Matt', 'M', 31),
(3, 'Grace', 'F', 25),
(4, 'Harry', 'M', 20),
(5, 'Scott', 'M', 30),
(6, 'Sarah', 'F', 30),
(7, 'Tony', 'M', 30),
(8, 'Lucy', 'F', 27),
(9, 'Zoe', 'F', 30),
(10, 'Megan', 'F', 26),
(11, 'Emily', 'F', 20),
(12, 'Peter', 'M', 20),
(13, 'John', 'M', 21),
(14, 'Kate', 'F', 35),
(15, 'James', 'M', 32),
(16, 'Cole', 'M', 25),
(17, 'Dennis', 'M', 27),
(18, 'Smith', 'M', 35),
(19, 'Zack', 'M', 35),
(20, 'Jill', 'F', 25);
SELECT person.*, @rank := CASE
WHEN @partval = gender AND @rankval = age THEN @rank
WHEN @partval = gender AND (@rankval := age) IS NOT NULL THEN @rank + 1
WHEN (@partval := gender) IS NOT NULL AND (@rankval := age) IS NOT NULL THEN 1
END AS rnk
FROM person, (SELECT @rank := NULL, @partval := NULL, @rankval := NULL) AS x
ORDER BY gender, age;
Notice that the variable assignments are placed inside the CASE expression. This (in theory) takes care of order of evaluation issue. The IS NOT NULL is added to handle datatype conversion and short circuiting issues.
PS: It can easily be converted to row number over partition by by removing all conditions that check for tie.
| id | firstname | gender | age | rank |
|----|-----------|--------|-----|------|
| 11 | Emily | F | 20 | 1 |
| 20 | Jill | F | 25 | 2 |
| 3 | Grace | F | 25 | 2 |
| 10 | Megan | F | 26 | 3 |
| 8 | Lucy | F | 27 | 4 |
| 6 | Sarah | F | 30 | 5 |
| 9 | Zoe | F | 30 | 5 |
| 14 | Kate | F | 35 | 6 |
| 4 | Harry | M | 20 | 1 |
| 12 | Peter | M | 20 | 1 |
| 13 | John | M | 21 | 2 |
| 16 | Cole | M | 25 | 3 |
| 17 | Dennis | M | 27 | 4 |
| 7 | Tony | M | 30 | 5 |
| 5 | Scott | M | 30 | 5 |
| 2 | Matt | M | 31 | 6 |
| 15 | James | M | 32 | 7 |
| 1 | Adams | M | 33 | 8 |
| 18 | Smith | M | 35 | 9 |
| 19 | Zack | M | 35 | 9 |
Demo on db<>fiddle
While the most upvoted answer ranks, it doesn't partition, You can do a self Join to get the whole thing partitioned also:
SELECT a.first_name,
a.age,
a.gender,
count(b.age)+1 as rank
FROM person a left join person b on a.age>b.age and a.gender=b.gender
group by a.first_name,
a.age,
a.gender
Use Case
CREATE TABLE person (id int, first_name varchar(20), age int, gender char(1));
INSERT INTO person VALUES (1, 'Bob', 25, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (2, 'Jane', 20, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (3, 'Jack', 30, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (4, 'Bill', 32, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (5, 'Nick', 22, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (6, 'Kathy', 18, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (7, 'Steve', 36, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (8, 'Anne', 25, 'F');
Answer:
Bill 32 M 4
Bob 25 M 2
Jack 30 M 3
Nick 22 M 1
Steve 36 M 5
Anne 25 F 3
Jane 20 F 2
Kathy 18 F 1