Technical Article

Update a table column with a sequence number v3

Both Sachinvaishnav and Mark Chad have submitted scripts to populate a column with a sequence number. The first solution uses a cursor; the second uses the SQL 2005 ROW_NUMBER() function.v1:http://www.sqlservercentral.com/scripts/viewscript.asp?scriptid=1643v2:http://www.sqlservercentral.com/scripts/viewscript.asp?scriptid=1664Since neither script requires a specific order for the sequence number, the same result can be achieved with a single UPDATE statement.

You rated this post out of 5. Change rating

2006-04-26 (first published: )

397 reads

Blogs

Don’t Miss Out – SQL Server Query Tuning Fundamentals Starts Next Monday!

By

Next Monday, February 9, 2026, my one-day live online training SQL Server Query Tuning...

Monday Monitor Tips: SQL Auditing Preview

By

One of the features we advocates have been advocating for is a better way...

SQL Server 2025 CU1 Fixes the Docker Desktop AVX Issue on macOS

By

Microsoft fixed the AVX instruction issue in SQL Server 2025 CU1. The container now...

Read the latest Blogs

Forums

25 Years of SQL Server Central

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item 25 Years of SQL Server...

The Decoded Value

By Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Decoded Value

Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition in Kubernetes: A Cost-Effective Alternative to RDS

By Sujai Krishna

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Deploying SQL Server Developer Edition...

Visit the forum

Question of the Day

The Decoded Value

In SQL Server 2025, what is returned from this code:

DECLARE @message VARCHAR(50) = 'Hello SQL Server 2025!';
DECLARE @encoded VARCHAR(MAX);

SET @encoded = BASE64_ENCODE(CAST(@message AS VARBINARY(1000)));
SELECT BASE64_DECODE(@encoded) 

See possible answers