Rank function in MySQL

Question

One option is to use a ranking variable, such as the following:

SELECT    first_name,
          age,
          gender,
          @curRank := @curRank + 1 AS rank
FROM      person p, (SELECT @curRank := 0) r
ORDER BY  age;

The (SELECT @curRank := 0) part allows the variable initialization without requiring a separate SET command.

Test case:

CREATE TABLE person (id int, first_name varchar(20), age int, gender char(1));

INSERT INTO person VALUES (1, 'Bob', 25, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (2, 'Jane', 20, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (3, 'Jack', 30, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (4, 'Bill', 32, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (5, 'Nick', 22, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (6, 'Kathy', 18, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (7, 'Steve', 36, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (8, 'Anne', 25, 'F');

Result:

+------------+------+--------+------+
| first_name | age  | gender | rank |
+------------+------+--------+------+
| Kathy      |   18 | F      |    1 |
| Jane       |   20 | F      |    2 |
| Nick       |   22 | M      |    3 |
| Bob        |   25 | M      |    4 |
| Anne       |   25 | F      |    5 |
| Jack       |   30 | M      |    6 |
| Bill       |   32 | M      |    7 |
| Steve      |   36 | M      |    8 |
+------------+------+--------+------+
8 rows in set (0.02 sec)

Here is a generic solution that assigns dense rank over partition to rows. It uses user variables:

CREATE TABLE person (
    id INT NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
    firstname VARCHAR(10),
    gender VARCHAR(1),
    age INT
);

INSERT INTO person (id, firstname, gender, age) VALUES
(1,  'Adams',  'M', 33),
(2,  'Matt',   'M', 31),
(3,  'Grace',  'F', 25),
(4,  'Harry',  'M', 20),
(5,  'Scott',  'M', 30),
(6,  'Sarah',  'F', 30),
(7,  'Tony',   'M', 30),
(8,  'Lucy',   'F', 27),
(9,  'Zoe',    'F', 30),
(10, 'Megan',  'F', 26),
(11, 'Emily',  'F', 20),
(12, 'Peter',  'M', 20),
(13, 'John',   'M', 21),
(14, 'Kate',   'F', 35),
(15, 'James',  'M', 32),
(16, 'Cole',   'M', 25),
(17, 'Dennis', 'M', 27),
(18, 'Smith',  'M', 35),
(19, 'Zack',   'M', 35),
(20, 'Jill',   'F', 25);

SELECT person.*, @rank := CASE
    WHEN @partval = gender AND @rankval = age THEN @rank
    WHEN @partval = gender AND (@rankval := age) IS NOT NULL THEN @rank + 1
    WHEN (@partval := gender) IS NOT NULL AND (@rankval := age) IS NOT NULL THEN 1
END AS rnk
FROM person, (SELECT @rank := NULL, @partval := NULL, @rankval := NULL) AS x
ORDER BY gender, age;

Notice that the variable assignments are placed inside the CASE expression. This (in theory) takes care of order of evaluation issue. The IS NOT NULL is added to handle datatype conversion and short circuiting issues.

PS: It can easily be converted to row number over partition by by removing all conditions that check for tie.

| id | firstname | gender | age | rank |
|----|-----------|--------|-----|------|
| 11 | Emily     | F      | 20  | 1    |
| 20 | Jill      | F      | 25  | 2    |
| 3  | Grace     | F      | 25  | 2    |
| 10 | Megan     | F      | 26  | 3    |
| 8  | Lucy      | F      | 27  | 4    |
| 6  | Sarah     | F      | 30  | 5    |
| 9  | Zoe       | F      | 30  | 5    |
| 14 | Kate      | F      | 35  | 6    |
| 4  | Harry     | M      | 20  | 1    |
| 12 | Peter     | M      | 20  | 1    |
| 13 | John      | M      | 21  | 2    |
| 16 | Cole      | M      | 25  | 3    |
| 17 | Dennis    | M      | 27  | 4    |
| 7  | Tony      | M      | 30  | 5    |
| 5  | Scott     | M      | 30  | 5    |
| 2  | Matt      | M      | 31  | 6    |
| 15 | James     | M      | 32  | 7    |
| 1  | Adams     | M      | 33  | 8    |
| 18 | Smith     | M      | 35  | 9    |
| 19 | Zack      | M      | 35  | 9    |

Demo on db<>fiddle

While the most upvoted answer ranks, it doesn't partition, You can do a self Join to get the whole thing partitioned also:

SELECT    a.first_name,
      a.age,
      a.gender,
        count(b.age)+1 as rank
FROM  person a left join person b on a.age>b.age and a.gender=b.gender 
group by  a.first_name,
      a.age,
      a.gender

Use Case

CREATE TABLE person (id int, first_name varchar(20), age int, gender char(1));

INSERT INTO person VALUES (1, 'Bob', 25, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (2, 'Jane', 20, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (3, 'Jack', 30, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (4, 'Bill', 32, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (5, 'Nick', 22, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (6, 'Kathy', 18, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (7, 'Steve', 36, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (8, 'Anne', 25, 'F');

Answer:

Bill    32  M   4
Bob     25  M   2
Jack    30  M   3
Nick    22  M   1
Steve   36  M   5
Anne    25  F   3
Jane    20  F   2
Kathy   18  F   1

A tweak of Daniel's version to calculate percentile along with rank. Also two people with same marks will get the same rank.

set @totalStudents = 0;
select count(*) into @totalStudents from marksheets;
SELECT id, score, @curRank := IF(@prevVal=score, @curRank, @studentNumber) AS rank, 
@percentile := IF(@prevVal=score, @percentile, (@totalStudents - @studentNumber + 1)/(@totalStudents)*100),
@studentNumber := @studentNumber + 1 as studentNumber, 
@prevVal:=score
FROM marksheets, (
SELECT @curRank :=0, @prevVal:=null, @studentNumber:=1, @percentile:=100
) r
ORDER BY score DESC

Results of the query for a sample data -

+----+-------+------+---------------+---------------+-----------------+
| id | score | rank | percentile    | studentNumber | @prevVal:=score |
+----+-------+------+---------------+---------------+-----------------+
| 10 |    98 |    1 | 100.000000000 |             2 |              98 |
|  5 |    95 |    2 |  90.000000000 |             3 |              95 |
|  6 |    91 |    3 |  80.000000000 |             4 |              91 |
|  2 |    91 |    3 |  80.000000000 |             5 |              91 |
|  8 |    90 |    5 |  60.000000000 |             6 |              90 |
|  1 |    90 |    5 |  60.000000000 |             7 |              90 |
|  9 |    84 |    7 |  40.000000000 |             8 |              84 |
|  3 |    83 |    8 |  30.000000000 |             9 |              83 |
|  4 |    72 |    9 |  20.000000000 |            10 |              72 |
|  7 |    60 |   10 |  10.000000000 |            11 |              60 |
+----+-------+------+---------------+---------------+-----------------+

Combination of Daniel's and Salman's answer. However the rank will not give as continues sequence with ties exists . Instead it skips the rank to next. So maximum always reach row count.

    SELECT    first_name,
              age,
              gender,
              IF(age=@_last_age,@curRank:=@curRank,@curRank:=@_sequence) AS rank,
              @_sequence:=@_sequence+1,@_last_age:=age
    FROM      person p, (SELECT @curRank := 1, @_sequence:=1, @_last_age:=0) r
    ORDER BY  age;

Schema and Test Case:

CREATE TABLE person (id int, first_name varchar(20), age int, gender char(1));

INSERT INTO person VALUES (1, 'Bob', 25, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (2, 'Jane', 20, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (3, 'Jack', 30, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (4, 'Bill', 32, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (5, 'Nick', 22, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (6, 'Kathy', 18, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (7, 'Steve', 36, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (8, 'Anne', 25, 'F');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (9, 'Kamal', 25, 'M');
INSERT INTO person VALUES (10, 'Saman', 32, 'M');

Output:

+------------+------+--------+------+--------------------------+-----------------+
| first_name | age  | gender | rank | @_sequence:=@_sequence+1 | @_last_age:=age |
+------------+------+--------+------+--------------------------+-----------------+
| Kathy      |   18 | F      |    1 |                        2 |              18 |
| Jane       |   20 | F      |    2 |                        3 |              20 |
| Nick       |   22 | M      |    3 |                        4 |              22 |
| Kamal      |   25 | M      |    4 |                        5 |              25 |
| Anne       |   25 | F      |    4 |                        6 |              25 |
| Bob        |   25 | M      |    4 |                        7 |              25 |
| Jack       |   30 | M      |    7 |                        8 |              30 |
| Bill       |   32 | M      |    8 |                        9 |              32 |
| Saman      |   32 | M      |    8 |                       10 |              32 |
| Steve      |   36 | M      |   10 |                       11 |              36 |
+------------+------+--------+------+--------------------------+-----------------+