SQL SERVER – Tips from the SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series – Ranking Functions – Advanced NTILE in Detail – Day 13 of 35

Answer simple quiz at the end of the blog post and –
Every day one winner from India will get Joes 2 Pros Volume 2.
Every day one winner from United States will get Joes 2 Pros Volume 2.

Ranking Functions Part 2 (NTILE)

A friend of mine recently told me she’s very proud of her son, because he is consistently in the upper quarter of every class he takes. Right there she performed a calculation similar to the NTILE function. She didn’t know it, but she tiled the class into four pieces and then identified which piece her son belongs in.

Just like its three fellow ranking functions, NTILE takes data you’ve sorted and then marches straight down the list in order of row number. Instead of assigning a rank value to each record, NTILE counts records and assigns them into a group (a.k.a., “tile”, or “bucket” in geek speak) based on:
1) the number of tiles/pieces you have specified, and
2) the count of records contained in the query.

Like all other ranking functions, we want to first write a SELECT statement and an ORDER BY clause to determine the sort order.

SQL SERVER - Tips from the SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series - Ranking Functions - Advanced NTILE in Detail - Day 13 of 35 j2p_13_1

Adding the NTILE function to the query is almost the same as with the first three ranking functions we saw from yesterdays blog post. The ORDER BY clause gets plugged into the parentheses of the OVER( ) clause. Just one new item to note with the NTILE:  you must insert the number of tiles (or pieces) in the parentheses of the NTILE. In this case we want four pieces, just like my friend’s story about her son.

The upper quarter consists of Grants 007, 008, 009 and are the “1” group of records. The lowest quarter (the group “4” records) consists of Grants 001 and 010 as seen in the figure below

SQL SERVER - Tips from the SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series - Ranking Functions - Advanced NTILE in Detail - Day 13 of 35 j2p_13_2

If you want just an upper and lower half ranking just change this query to show just two pieces. We see the grant records divided into an upper half (the “1” records) and a lower half (“2” records). The figure below shows the top 5 grants in group 1 and the lowest 5 grants in group 2. In this case the NTILE query now divides the grants into an upper half and lower half.

SQL SERVER - Tips from the SQL Joes 2 Pros Development Series - Ranking Functions - Advanced NTILE in Detail - Day 13 of 35 j2p_13_3

Note: If you want to setup the sample JProCo database on your system you can watch this video. For this post you will want to run the SQLQueriesChapter7.0Setup.sql script from Volume 2.

Question 13

You want to find the top 2% of all students’ Grade Point Averages (GPA). Which NTILE would you use?

  1. NTILE(1) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)
  2. NTILE(2) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)
  3. NTILE(25) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)
  4. NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

Rules:

Please leave your answer in comment section below with correct option, explanation and your country of resident.
Every day one winner will be announced from United States.
Every day one winner will be announced from India.
A valid answer must contain country of residence of answerer.
Please check my facebook page for winners name and correct answer.
Winner from United States will get Joes 2 Pros Volume 2.
Winner from India will get Joes 2 Pros Volume 2.
The contest is open till next blog post shows up at which is next day GTM+2.5.

Reference:  Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)

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56 Comments. Leave new

  • Option 4:
    NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    This Query will return 50 groups with 2% data in each group.

    The first group will have top 2% of all students’ Grade Point Averages (GPA).

    Thanks,

    Shree

    Bangalore India

    Reply
  • PC Rao (@pcrao_kode)
    August 13, 2011 4:48 pm

    Correct answer is 4. i.e..NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    Here we are looking for 2%, whihc is one of the 50 tiles/parts.

    I’m from UK

    Reply
  • Ritam Banerjee
    August 13, 2011 6:42 pm

    Option 4) NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)
    Reason: You want to find the top 2% of all students’ Grade Point Averages (GPA). So, we need to divide into 50 parts and then only we get 100/50 = 2%.

    Thanks and regards
    Ritam Banerjee
    India

    Reply
  • Varinder Sandhu
    August 13, 2011 7:44 pm

    I think the option 4 is correct as

    NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    Varinder Sandhu (India)

    Reply
  • Correct answer is 4
    i.e. NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER by GPA DESC)

    I’m from india

    Reply
  • Rajneesh Verma
    August 13, 2011 8:22 pm

    Correct Answer is “NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)”
    ie. Option 4 is correct.

    Rajneesh Verma
    (INDIA)

    Reply
  • 4.

    Specified 50 tiles to split data out to. That would reach the goal of 2%

    Dan
    New Jersey USA

    Reply
  • 4.NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    Gordon Kane
    Allen TX
    USA

    Reply
  • Correct answer is option 4.
    Top two percent refers to 1/50 records so ntile (50) will give right answer .

    Sumit
    India

    Reply
  • Correct answer:4

    NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    INDIA
    lalit

    Reply
  • vinay (@vinayprasadv)
    August 13, 2011 10:24 pm

    Answer is:

    4.NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    Vinay
    Pune, India

    Reply
  • Answer is option 4.

    NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    Country : India

    Reply
  • correct answer : option no 4

    shekhar gurav.
    country : India

    Reply
  • dilipkumarjena
    August 14, 2011 12:57 am

    Hi Pinal Sir,

    The Correct Option for the above question is Option 4.

    Explanation :

    Here we need to find the top 2% of all students’ Grade Point Averages (GPA).

    Here the Interesting thing to note is that when we specify the number in NTILE() Function it divided the total records into that many sets of records:

    Ex: 2 Means 50 % Expression (No of records /2 = we will get 2 sets)

    So we will get 2 sets. Say suppose for the % sake we need to take 100% (i.e.) total Number* 1 /2
    Total * .5.

    Now Our requirement is 2% so 2 / 100 = 1/total number
    That gives us 100/2 = 1 /50

    Hence the number is 50 (groups)

    Hence the correct option is 4) NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    Why Other Options are wrong:

    Option 1) NTILE(1) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    This Option will group all the records mathematically speaking 100% records so ruled out.

    Option 2) NTILE(2) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    This Option will group all the records into half mathematically speaking 50% records in one group so ruled out.

    Option 3) NTILE(25) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    Above query will group all the records into 25 groups mathematically speaking 4% records in one group.

    Hence the correct Option is 4.

    and a very happy independece Day to you and all my country people!!!!

    DILIP KUMAR JENA
    Country : INDIA

    Reply
  • Hi

    I would select answer 4. NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    1/50 – we need 50 parts so each part would represent 2% of the students

    Reply
  • Hi

    I would select answer 4. NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    1/50 – we need 50 parts so each part would represent 2% of the students

    Eric
    USA

    Reply
  • Partha Pratim Dinda
    August 14, 2011 1:29 am

    Ans is:

    4.NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    Partha
    India

    Reply
  • Vijay Kumar Patil
    August 14, 2011 2:10 am

    Option is 4 is corrected only based on below assumptions.

    My assumption for the following question is highest GPA is 100.
    Assuming there are all the GPA from 1 to 100. And there 100 or multiples of 100 rows only.

    There some problems which might rise with this option also, like scenarios where everyone has scored 100.
    Or more then 2% of them have scored 100.

    INDIA

    Reply
  • The correct answer is:
    4.NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    This will divide the results into groups of 2%.

    Thanks for this great contest.

    Country: United States

    Reply
  • Hi Pinal,

    Challenge:
    Question 13
    You want to find the top 2% of all students’ Grade Point Averages (GPA). Which NTILE would you use?

    1.NTILE(1) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)
    2.NTILE(2) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)
    3.NTILE(25) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)
    4.NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    Correct Answer:
    The correct answer is #4:
    NTILE(50) OVER(ORDER BY GPA DESC)

    Explanation:
    Choice #1 will have only 1 tile, meaning all results will be in the tile. This isn’t what was requested.
    Choice #2 will have only 2 tiles, segmenting the upper 50% from the lower 50%. This isn’t what was requested.
    Choice #3 will have 25 tiles, segmenting the results into groups of 4%. This isn’t what was requested.
    Choice #4 will have 50 tiles, segmenting the results into groups of 2%. This is what was requested and is the correct answer.

    Country:
    United States

    Thanks for the knowledge!

    Regards,

    Bill Pepping

    Reply

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