Row numbers in query result using Microsoft Access

Since I am sorting alphabetically on a string field and NOT by ID, the Count(*) and DCOUNT() approaches didn't work for me. My solution was to write a function that returns the Row Number:

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit
Private Rst As Recordset

Public Function GetRowNum(ID As Long) As Long
  If Rst Is Nothing Then
    Set Rst = CurrentDb.OpenRecordset("SELECT ID FROM FileList ORDER BY RealName")
  End If
  Rst.FindFirst "ID=" & ID
  GetRowNum = Rst.AbsolutePosition + 1
' Release the Rst 1 sec after it's last use
'------------------------------------------
  SetTimer Application.hWndAccessApp, 1, 1000, AddressOf ReleaseRst  
End Function


Private Sub ReleaseRst(ByVal hWnd As LongPtr, ByVal uMsg As Long, ByVal nIDEEvent As Long, ByVal dwTime As Long)
  KillTimer Application.hWndAccessApp, 1 
  Set Rst = Nothing
End Sub

Another way to assign a row number in a query is to use the DCount function.

SELECT *, DCount("[ID]","[mytable]","[ID]<=" & [ID]) AS row_id
FROM [mytable]
WHERE row_id=15

MS-Access doesn't support ROW_NUMBER(). Use TOP 1:

SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM [MyTable]
ORDER BY [MyIdentityCOlumn]

If you need the 15th row - MS-Access has no simple, built-in, way to do this. You can simulate the rownumber by using reverse nested ordering to get this:

SELECT TOP 1 *
FROM (
  SELECT TOP 15 *
  FROM [MyTable]
  ORDER BY [MyIdentityColumn] ) t
ORDER BY [MyIdentityColumn] DESC

Though this is an old question, this has worked for me, but I've never tested its efficiency...

SELECT 
    (SELECT COUNT(t1.SourceID) 
     FROM [SourceTable] t1 
     WHERE t1.SourceID<t2.SourceID) AS RowID, 
    t2.field2, 
    t2.field3, 
    t2.field4, 
    t2.field5
FROM 
    SourceTable AS t2
ORDER BY 
    t2.SourceID;

Some advantages of this method:

• It doesn't rely on the order of the table, either - the RowID is calculated on its actual value and those that are less than it.
• This method can be applied to any (primary key) type (e.g. Number, String or Date).
• This method is fairly SQL agnostic, or requires very little adaptation.

Final Thoughts

Though this will work with practically any data type, I must emphasise that, for some, it may create other problems. For instance, with strings, consider:

ID     Description    ROWID
aaa    Aardvark           1
bbb    Bear               2
ccc    Canary             3

If I were to insert: bba Boar, then the Canary RowID will change...

ID     Description    ROWID
aaa    Aardvark           1
bbb    Bear               2
bba    Boar               3
ccc    Canary             4