DENSE_RANK

DENSE_RANK computes the rank of a row in an ordered group of rows and returns the rank as a NUMBER . The ranks are consecutive integers beginning with 1. The largest rank value is the number of unique values returned by the query. Rank values are not skipped in the event of ties.

Example:

USE AdventureWorks2012;  
GO  
SELECT i.ProductID, p.Name, i.LocationID, i.Quantity  
    ,DENSE_RANK() OVER   
    (PARTITION BY i.LocationID ORDER BY i.Quantity DESC) AS Rank  
FROM Production.ProductInventory AS i   
INNER JOIN Production.Product AS p   
    ON i.ProductID = p.ProductID  
WHERE i.LocationID BETWEEN 3 AND 4  
ORDER BY i.LocationID;  
GO  

Result:

ProductID   Name                               LocationID Quantity Rank  
----------- ---------------------------------- ---------- -------- -----  
494         Paint - Silver                     3          49       1  
495         Paint - Blue                       3          49       1  
493         Paint - Red                        3          41       2  
496         Paint - Yellow                     3          30       3  
492         Paint - Black                      3          17       4  
495         Paint - Blue                       4          35       1  
496         Paint - Yellow                     4          25       2  
493         Paint - Red                        4          24       3  
492         Paint - Black                      4          14       4  
494         Paint - Silver                     4          12       5  
  
(10 row(s) affected)