cengland0 (1/6/2011)

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When the question asked will it always return consecutive integers, I knew right away that it was false because none of them will always return consecutive integers if there is only one row.

Score Rank
9.6   1
9.6   1
8.4   3

Hugo Kornelis (1/6/2011)

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[quote]cengland0 (1/6/2011)

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Meh, I could just as well say that everything is consecutive in a single-row rowset.
According to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/consecutive, "consecutive" means (a.o.) "Following one after another without interruption" - and in a single row row-set, there can never be any interruption.

cengland0 (1/6/2011)

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You forgot a major component of the definition of consecutive. The "one after another" part. When you have a one row rowset, how can you have one after another in the resultset? That means you must have a minimum of two rows to have one after another.

cengland0 (1/6/2011)

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There are several ranking functions:
RANK
DENSE_RANK
NTILE
ROW_NUMBER

When the question asked will it always return consecutive integers, I knew right away that it was false because none of them will always return consecutive integers if there is only one row. One row is still a non empty rowset but that was not explained in the provided explanation.

WayneS (1/6/2011)

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Yes, there are several. However, this question is about the RANK() function, so why even bring these others into the mix?

Are you just trying to find fault with the question?

cengland0 (1/6/2011)

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Another way to put this is if the question said:

In a non-empty rowset, ROW_NUMBER() always returns consecutive integers.

What would you answer? True or False?

I'd still answer False because it's possible to have a one-row rowset but the author is probably thinking True.