The ROW_NUMBER function uniquely numbers the rows in its result. It is not a ranking function; however, you can use it in any situation in which you can use a ranking function, and it behaves similarly to a ranking function.

For example, you can use ROW_NUMBER in a derived table so that additional restrictions, even joins, can be made over the ROW_NUMBER values:

SELECT *
FROM ( SELECT Description, Quantity,
       ROW_NUMBER( ) OVER ( ORDER BY ID ASC ) AS RowNum
FROM Products ) AS DT
WHERE RowNum <= 3
ORDER BY RowNum;

This query returns the following results:

As with the ranking functions, ROW_NUMBER requires an ORDER BY clause.

As well, ROW_NUMBER can return non-deterministic results when the window's ORDER BY clause is over non-unique expressions; row order is unpredictable for ties.

ROW_NUMBER is designed to work over the entire partition, so a ROWS or RANGE clause cannot be specified with a ROW_NUMBER function.