Though all three are ranking functions in SQL, also known as window function in Microsoft SQL Server, the difference between rank(), dense_rank(), and row_number() comes when you have ties on ranking i.e. duplicate records. For example, if you are ranking employees by their salaries then what would be the rank of two employees of same salaries? It depends on upon which ranking function you are using e.g. row_number, rank, or dense_rank. The row_number() function always generates a unique ranking even with duplicate records i.e. if the ORDER BY clause cannot distinguish between two rows, it will still give them different rankings, though which record will come earlier or later is decided randomly e.g. in our example two employees Shane and Rick have the same salary and has row number 4 and 5, this is random, if you run again, Shane might come 5th.
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