I have a query that lists various records, but also should put a row
count next to each.
For instance
No. Name
1 John Smith
2 Ravi Patel
3 Ronnie Oshinsky
etc.
the problem is I don't know how to get the consecutive numbers to go
with the names. No numbers are stored in the database, just names and
a primary key field. The primary key field is not consecutive because
of deletes that sometimes happen. So I cannot use the primary key
field. Is there any way to do this?
Thanks,
Marvin

On SQL Server 2005 you can use ROW_NUMBER() to generate consecutive numbers.
You have to decide what the ordering will be based on (the name column, the
primary key column, etc.).

Here is how it may look:

SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY name) AS 'No.',
[name]
FROM Foo;

Note the ORDER BY clause in OVER. That will define the number sequence.

HTH,

Plamen Ratchev
http://www.SQLStudio.com