What’s the Difference Between PERCENT_RANK and CUME_DIST?

Learn a bit about the different results you get from the PERCENT_RANK and CUME_DIST aggregate functions.

The percent ranks

Nasty Fast PERCENT_RANK

Alan Burstein discusses a better performning alternative to PERCENT_RANK that works on SQL Server versions 2005+

Using the T-SQL PERCENTILE Analytic Functions in SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008

Percentiles give meaning to measurements by telling you the percentage of the population being measured who get higher or lower values. They are now easier to calculate in SQL, and are useful for reporting; but are the new analytic functions faster and more efficient than the older methods? Dwain Camps demonstrates, and investigates their relative performance.