Rank function
A rank function assigns ordinal positions according to an ordering, giving tied values equal ranks and applying a defined tie-handling rule to subsequent positions.
Statistics Slam Dunk
The base R rank() function assigns ordinal ranks to elements of a vector according to their values and tie-handling rules.
- How it is used
- Uses grouped ordinal ranking to select a fixed number of high-salary or high-win-share players for inequality analysis.
- How deep it goes
- Explains descending order, grouping, tie handling, filtering, and integrity checks, but does not develop rank() internals or alternative tie methods.
- Examples
- Demonstrates rankings for NBA salaries and win shares, including tied Atlanta win shares and team-specific validation queries.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via R and dplyr to rank observations within groups and retain a controlled top-N subset.
Just Use Postgres!
A rank function assigns ordinal rankings to rows according to an ordering and gives tied rows the same rank.
- How it is used
- Ranks grouped songs by total play duration while preserving the aggregate result for each song.
- How deep it goes
- Explains the RANK() query pattern and output, but does not develop ranking internals or extensive tie behavior.
- Examples
- Uses a music-streaming dataset to rank songs by their total play duration.
- What you can do after
- Apply it via SQL to produce ordered ranks alongside grouped aggregate results.
Related concepts
- window functionkind of · A window function is an SQL operation that computes a value over related rows while preserving each individual row in the result.
- derived variableproduces · A derived variable is a data field computed from one or more existing variables through a calculation, rule, or transformation.
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