Maintain running numbers

In this tip I will explain how to maintain running numbers in SQL Server. There could be situations where you need to club records of two different tables and maintain the running number. In that situation my query would be useful. It works in SQL Server 7 and 2000.

Let us assume that the values for Table 1 and Table 2 are as follows: 

Table1  |  Table 2    
ID Name |  ID   Name
------- |  ---------
1 aaa   |  Null ddd   
2 bbb   |  Null eee   
3 ccc   |  Null fff
From the above sample records, the question is how to write a query to fetch the result as follows: 
1. aaa
2. bbb
3. ccc
4. ddd
5. eee
6. fff
Here is the solution: 
Select a.ID, a.Name from Table1 a
 UNION 
Select DISTINCT a.ID + (Select MAX(ID) from Table1), b.Name from Table1 a, Table2 b 
ORDER by 1

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This was first published in November 2003

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