How Can I Implement Ranking in MySQL Without a Native RANK Function?

Implementing ranking in MySQL: an alternative to using variables

MySQL itself does not provide a comparable RANK function to ANSI standard SQL queries. However, there are alternatives to using variables to achieve similar functionality.

The following is an example MySQL query:

<code class="language-sql">SELECT    first_name,
          age,
          gender,
          @curRank := @curRank + 1 AS rank
FROM      person p, (SELECT @curRank := 0) r
ORDER BY  age;</code>

This query utilizes the ranking variable @curRank, which is initialized to zero using the subquery (SELECT @curRank := 0). As each row of the person table is processed, the @curRank variable is incremented by 1, creating a ranking mechanism based on the specified sorting criterion (in this case, age).

To illustrate this, let’s apply this method to an example person table:

<code class="language-sql">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');</code>

Execute query:

<code class="language-sql">SELECT    first_name,
          age,
          gender,
          @curRank := @curRank + 1 AS rank
FROM      person p, (SELECT @curRank := 0) r
ORDER BY  age;</code>

will produce the following results:

<code>+------------+------+--------+------+
| 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)</code>

Apparently, this query successfully assigns rankings to individuals in each gender partition, similar to the expected results of the ANSI standard SQL query. This technique provides a practical workaround when MySQL lacks a dedicated RANK function.

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