[sql] How to generate a range of numbers between two numbers?

I have two numbers as input from the user, like for example 1000 and 1050.

How do I generate the numbers between these two numbers, using a sql query, in seperate rows? I want this:

 1000
 1001
 1002
 1003
 .
 .
 1050

DECLARE @a int=1000, @b int=1050
SELECT @a-1+ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY y.z.value('(/n)[1]', 'int') ) rw
FROM (
SELECT CAST('<m>'+REPLICATE('<n>1</n>', @b-@a+1)+'</m>' AS XML ) x ) t
CROSS APPLY t.x.nodes('//m/n') y(z)

Here's what I came up with:

create or alter function dbo.fn_range(@start int, @end int)  returns table
return
with u2(n) as (
    select n 
    from (VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3)) v(n)
), 
u8(n) as (
    select
        x0.n | x1.n * 4 | x2.n * 16 | x3.n * 64 as n
    from u2 x0, u2 x1, u2 x2, u2 x3
)
select 
    @start + s.n as n
from (
    select
        x0.n | isnull(x1.n, 0) * 256 | isnull(x2.n, 0) * 65536 as n
    from u8 x0 
    left join u8 x1 on @end-@start > 256
    left join u8 x2 on @end-@start > 65536
) s
where s.n < @end - @start

Generates up to 2^24 values. Join conditions keep it fast for small values.

The solution I've developed and used for quite some time now (riding some on the shared works of others) is slightly similar to at least one posted. It doesn't reference any tables and returns an unsorted range of up to 1048576 values (2^20) and can include negatives if desired. You can of course sort the result if necessary. It runs pretty quickly, especially on smaller ranges.

Select value from dbo.intRange(-500, 1500) order by value  -- returns 2001 values

create function dbo.intRange 
(   
    @Starting as int,
    @Ending as int
)
returns table
as
return (
    select value
    from (
        select @Starting +
            ( bit00.v | bit01.v | bit02.v | bit03.v
            | bit04.v | bit05.v | bit06.v | bit07.v
            | bit08.v | bit09.v | bit10.v | bit11.v
            | bit12.v | bit13.v | bit14.v | bit15.v
            | bit16.v | bit17.v | bit18.v | bit19.v
            ) as value
        from       (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00001 as v) as bit00
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00002 as v) as bit01
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00004 as v) as bit02
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00008 as v) as bit03
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00010 as v) as bit04
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00020 as v) as bit05
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00040 as v) as bit06
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00080 as v) as bit07
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00100 as v) as bit08
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00200 as v) as bit09
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00400 as v) as bit10
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x00800 as v) as bit11
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x01000 as v) as bit12
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x02000 as v) as bit13
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x04000 as v) as bit14
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x08000 as v) as bit15
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x10000 as v) as bit16
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x20000 as v) as bit17
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x40000 as v) as bit18
        cross join (select 0 as v union ALL select 0x80000 as v) as bit19
    ) intList
    where @Ending - @Starting < 0x100000
        and intList.value between @Starting and @Ending
)

I recently wrote this inline table valued function to solve this very problem. It's not limited in range other than memory and storage. It accesses no tables so there's no need for disk reads or writes generally. It adds joins values exponentially on each iteration so it's very fast even for very large ranges. It creates ten million records in five seconds on my server. It also works with negative values.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[fn_ConsecutiveNumbers]
(   
    @start int,
    @end  int
) RETURNS TABLE 
RETURN 

select
    x268435456.X
    | x16777216.X
    | x1048576.X
    | x65536.X
    | x4096.X
    | x256.X
    | x16.X
    | x1.X
    + @start
     X
from
(VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9),(10),(11),(12),(13),(14),(15)) as x1(X)
join
(VALUES (0),(16),(32),(48),(64),(80),(96),(112),(128),(144),(160),(176),(192),(208),(224),(240)) as x16(X)
on x1.X <= @end-@start and x16.X <= @end-@start
join
(VALUES (0),(256),(512),(768),(1024),(1280),(1536),(1792),(2048),(2304),(2560),(2816),(3072),(3328),(3584),(3840)) as x256(X)
on x256.X <= @end-@start
join
(VALUES (0),(4096),(8192),(12288),(16384),(20480),(24576),(28672),(32768),(36864),(40960),(45056),(49152),(53248),(57344),(61440)) as x4096(X)
on x4096.X <= @end-@start
join
(VALUES (0),(65536),(131072),(196608),(262144),(327680),(393216),(458752),(524288),(589824),(655360),(720896),(786432),(851968),(917504),(983040)) as x65536(X)
on x65536.X <= @end-@start
join
(VALUES (0),(1048576),(2097152),(3145728),(4194304),(5242880),(6291456),(7340032),(8388608),(9437184),(10485760),(11534336),(12582912),(13631488),(14680064),(15728640)) as x1048576(X)
on x1048576.X <= @end-@start
join
(VALUES (0),(16777216),(33554432),(50331648),(67108864),(83886080),(100663296),(117440512),(134217728),(150994944),(167772160),(184549376),(201326592),(218103808),(234881024),(251658240)) as x16777216(X)
on x16777216.X <= @end-@start
join
(VALUES (0),(268435456),(536870912),(805306368),(1073741824),(1342177280),(1610612736),(1879048192)) as x268435456(X)
on x268435456.X <= @end-@start
WHERE @end >=
    x268435456.X
    | isnull(x16777216.X, 0)
    | isnull(x1048576.X, 0)
    | isnull(x65536.X, 0)
    | isnull(x4096.X, 0)
    | isnull(x256.X, 0)
    | isnull(x16.X, 0)
    | isnull(x1.X, 0)
    + @start

GO

SELECT X FROM fn_ConsecutiveNumbers(5, 500);

It's handy for date and time ranges as well:

SELECT DATEADD(day,X, 0) DayX 
FROM fn_ConsecutiveNumbers(datediff(day,0,'5/8/2015'), datediff(day,0,'5/31/2015'))

SELECT DATEADD(hour,X, 0) HourX 
FROM fn_ConsecutiveNumbers(datediff(hour,0,'5/8/2015'), datediff(hour,0,'5/8/2015 12:00 PM'));

You could use a cross apply join on it to split records based on values in the table. So for example to create a record for every minute on a time range in a table you could do something like:

select TimeRanges.StartTime,
    TimeRanges.EndTime,
    DATEADD(minute,X, 0) MinuteX
FROM TimeRanges
cross apply fn_ConsecutiveNumbers(datediff(hour,0,TimeRanges.StartTime), 
        datediff(hour,0,TimeRanges.EndTime)) ConsecutiveNumbers

Select non-persisted values with the VALUES keyword. Then use JOINs to generate lots and lots of combinations (can be extended to create hundreds of thousands of rows and beyond).

SELECT ones.n + 10*tens.n + 100*hundreds.n + 1000*thousands.n
FROM (VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) ones(n),
     (VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) tens(n),
     (VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) hundreds(n),
     (VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) thousands(n)
WHERE ones.n + 10*tens.n + 100*hundreds.n + 1000*thousands.n BETWEEN @userinput1 AND @userinput2
ORDER BY 1

Demo

A shorter alternative, that is not as easy to understand:

WITH x AS (SELECT n FROM (VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) v(n))
SELECT ones.n + 10*tens.n + 100*hundreds.n + 1000*thousands.n
FROM x ones,     x tens,      x hundreds,       x thousands
ORDER BY 1

Demo

This completed for me in 36 seconds on our DEV server. Like Brian's answer, focusing on filtering to the range is important from within the query; a BETWEEN still tries to generate all the initial records prior to the lower bound even though it doesn't need them.

declare @s bigint = 10000000
    ,   @e bigint = 20000000

;WITH 
Z AS (SELECT 0 z FROM (VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9),(10),(11),(12),(13),(14),(15)) T(n)),
Y AS (SELECT 0 z FROM Z a, Z b, Z c, Z d, Z e, Z f, Z g, Z h, Z i, Z j, Z k, Z l, Z m, Z n, Z o, Z p),
N AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY 0 ORDER BY z) n FROM Y)

SELECT TOP (1+@e-@s) @s + n - 1 FROM N

Note that ROW_NUMBER is a bigint, so we can't go over 2^^64 (==16^^16) generated records with any method that uses it. This query therefore respects the same upper limit on generated values.

recursive CTE in exponential size (even for default of 100 recursion, this can build up to 2^100 numbers):

DECLARE @startnum INT=1000
DECLARE @endnum INT=1050
DECLARE @size INT=@endnum-@startnum+1
;
WITH numrange (num) AS (
    SELECT 1 AS num
    UNION ALL
    SELECT num*2 FROM numrange WHERE num*2<=@size
    UNION ALL
    SELECT num*2+1 FROM numrange WHERE num*2+1<=@size
)
SELECT num+@startnum-1 FROM numrange order by num

I had to insert picture filepath into database using similar method. The query below worked fine:

DECLARE @num INT = 8270058
WHILE(@num<8270284)
begin
    INSERT  INTO [dbo].[Galleries]
    (ImagePath) 
    VALUES 
    ('~/Content/Galeria/P'+CONVERT(varchar(10), @num)+'.JPG')

    SET @num = @num + 1
end

The code for you would be:

DECLARE @num INT = 1000
WHILE(@num<1051)
begin
    SELECT @num

    SET @num = @num + 1
end

CREATE OR ALTER  FUNCTION [dbo].[_ICAN_TF_Nums2](@a INT, @b INT)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--INVENTIVE:Keyvan ARYAEE-MOEEN
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RETURNS @_ICAN_TF_Nums2 TABLE
(
    num int
)
AS
BEGIN
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WITH nums AS
   (SELECT @a AS value
    UNION ALL
    SELECT value + 1 AS value
    FROM nums
    WHERE nums.value < @b)
INSERT @_ICAN_TF_Nums2
SELECT *
FROM nums
ORDER BY 1
option ( MaxRecursion 0 );
RETURN
END
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- SELECT * FROM dbo._ICAN_TF_Nums2(1000, 1050)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nothing new but I rewrote Brian Pressler solution to be easier on the eye, it might be useful to someone (even if it's just future me):

alter function [dbo].[fn_GenerateNumbers]
(   
    @start int,
    @end  int
) returns table
return

with 
b0 as (select n from (values (0),(0x00000001),(0x00000002),(0x00000003),(0x00000004),(0x00000005),(0x00000006),(0x00000007),(0x00000008),(0x00000009),(0x0000000A),(0x0000000B),(0x0000000C),(0x0000000D),(0x0000000E),(0x0000000F)) as b0(n)),
b1 as (select n from (values (0),(0x00000010),(0x00000020),(0x00000030),(0x00000040),(0x00000050),(0x00000060),(0x00000070),(0x00000080),(0x00000090),(0x000000A0),(0x000000B0),(0x000000C0),(0x000000D0),(0x000000E0),(0x000000F0)) as b1(n)),
b2 as (select n from (values (0),(0x00000100),(0x00000200),(0x00000300),(0x00000400),(0x00000500),(0x00000600),(0x00000700),(0x00000800),(0x00000900),(0x00000A00),(0x00000B00),(0x00000C00),(0x00000D00),(0x00000E00),(0x00000F00)) as b2(n)),
b3 as (select n from (values (0),(0x00001000),(0x00002000),(0x00003000),(0x00004000),(0x00005000),(0x00006000),(0x00007000),(0x00008000),(0x00009000),(0x0000A000),(0x0000B000),(0x0000C000),(0x0000D000),(0x0000E000),(0x0000F000)) as b3(n)),
b4 as (select n from (values (0),(0x00010000),(0x00020000),(0x00030000),(0x00040000),(0x00050000),(0x00060000),(0x00070000),(0x00080000),(0x00090000),(0x000A0000),(0x000B0000),(0x000C0000),(0x000D0000),(0x000E0000),(0x000F0000)) as b4(n)),
b5 as (select n from (values (0),(0x00100000),(0x00200000),(0x00300000),(0x00400000),(0x00500000),(0x00600000),(0x00700000),(0x00800000),(0x00900000),(0x00A00000),(0x00B00000),(0x00C00000),(0x00D00000),(0x00E00000),(0x00F00000)) as b5(n)),
b6 as (select n from (values (0),(0x01000000),(0x02000000),(0x03000000),(0x04000000),(0x05000000),(0x06000000),(0x07000000),(0x08000000),(0x09000000),(0x0A000000),(0x0B000000),(0x0C000000),(0x0D000000),(0x0E000000),(0x0F000000)) as b6(n)),
b7 as (select n from (values (0),(0x10000000),(0x20000000),(0x30000000),(0x40000000),(0x50000000),(0x60000000),(0x70000000)) as b7(n))

select s.n
from (
    select
          b7.n
        | b6.n
        | b5.n
        | b4.n
        | b3.n
        | b2.n
        | b1.n
        | b0.n
        + @start
         n
    from b0
    join b1 on b0.n <= @end-@start and b1.n <= @end-@start
    join b2 on b2.n <= @end-@start
    join b3 on b3.n <= @end-@start
    join b4 on b4.n <= @end-@start
    join b5 on b5.n <= @end-@start
    join b6 on b6.n <= @end-@start
    join b7 on b7.n <= @end-@start
) s
where @end >= s.n

GO

If you don't have a problem installing a CLR assembly in your server a good option is writing a table valued function in .NET. That way you can use a simple syntax, making it easy to join with other queries and as a bonus won't waste memory because the result is streamed.

Create a project containing the following class:

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Sql;
using System.Data.SqlTypes;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Server;

namespace YourNamespace
{
   public sealed class SequenceGenerator
    {
        [SqlFunction(FillRowMethodName = "FillRow")]
        public static IEnumerable Generate(SqlInt32 start, SqlInt32 end)
        {
            int _start = start.Value;
            int _end = end.Value;
            for (int i = _start; i <= _end; i++)
                yield return i;
        }

        public static void FillRow(Object obj, out int i)
        {
            i = (int)obj;
        }

        private SequenceGenerator() { }
    }
}

Put the assembly somewhere on the server and run:

USE db;
CREATE ASSEMBLY SqlUtil FROM 'c:\path\to\assembly.dll'
WITH permission_set=Safe;

CREATE FUNCTION [Seq](@start int, @end int) 
RETURNS TABLE(i int)
AS EXTERNAL NAME [SqlUtil].[YourNamespace.SequenceGenerator].[Generate];

Now you can run:

select * from dbo.seq(1, 1000000)

The best speed when run query

DECLARE @num INT = 1000
WHILE(@num<1050)
begin
 INSERT  INTO [dbo].[Codes]
    (   Code
    ) 
    VALUES (@num)
    SET @num = @num + 1
end

SELECT DISTINCT n = number 
FROM master..[spt_values] 
WHERE number BETWEEN @start AND @end

Demo

Note that this table has a maximum of 2048 because then the numbers have gaps.

Here's a slightly better approach using a system view(since from SQL-Server 2005):

;WITH Nums AS
(
  SELECT n = ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY [object_id]) 
  FROM sys.all_objects 

)
SELECT n FROM Nums 
WHERE n BETWEEN @start AND @end
ORDER BY n;

Demo

or use a custom a number-table. Credits to Aaron Bertrand, i suggest to read the whole article: Generate a set or sequence without loops

;WITH u AS (
    SELECT Unit FROM (VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) v(Unit)
),
d AS (
    SELECT 
        (Thousands+Hundreds+Tens+Units) V
    FROM 
           (SELECT Thousands = Unit * 1000 FROM u) Thousands 
           ,(SELECT Hundreds = Unit * 100 FROM u) Hundreds 
           ,(SELECT Tens = Unit * 10 FROM u) Tens 
           ,(SELECT Units = Unit FROM u) Units
    WHERE
           (Thousands+Hundreds+Tens+Units) <= 10000
)

SELECT * FROM d ORDER BY v

The best option I have used is as follows:

DECLARE @min bigint, @max bigint
SELECT @Min=919859000000 ,@Max=919859999999

SELECT TOP (@Max-@Min+1) @Min-1+row_number() over(order by t1.number) as N
FROM master..spt_values t1 
    CROSS JOIN master..spt_values t2

I have generated millions of records using this and it works perfect.

It work for me !

select top 50 ROW_NUMBER() over(order by a.name) + 1000 as Rcount
from sys.all_objects a

This uses procedural code and a table-valued function. Slow, but easy and predictable.

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[Sequence] (@start int, @end int)
RETURNS
@Result TABLE(ID int)
AS
begin
declare @i int;
set @i = @start;
while @i <= @end 
    begin
        insert into @result values (@i);
        set @i = @i+1;
    end
return;
end

Usage:

SELECT * FROM dbo.Sequence (3,7);
ID
3
4
5
6
7

It's a table, so you can use it in joins with other data. I most frequently use this function as the left side of a join against a GROUP BY hour, day etc to ensure a contiguous sequence of time values.

SELECT DateAdd(hh,ID,'2018-06-20 00:00:00') as HoursInTheDay FROM dbo.Sequence (0,23) ;

HoursInTheDay
2018-06-20 00:00:00.000
2018-06-20 01:00:00.000
2018-06-20 02:00:00.000
2018-06-20 03:00:00.000
2018-06-20 04:00:00.000
(...)

Performance is uninspiring (16 seconds for a million rows) but good enough for many purposes.

SELECT count(1) FROM [dbo].[Sequence] (
   1000001
  ,2000000)
GO

an alternative solution is recursive CTE:

DECLARE @startnum INT=1000
DECLARE @endnum INT=1050
;
WITH gen AS (
    SELECT @startnum AS num
    UNION ALL
    SELECT num+1 FROM gen WHERE num+1<=@endnum
)
SELECT * FROM gen
option (maxrecursion 10000)

slartidan's answer can be improved, performance wise, by eliminating all references to the cartesian product and using ROW_NUMBER() instead (execution plan compared):

SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) AS n FROM 
(VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x1(x),
(VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x2(x),
(VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x3(x),
(VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x4(x),
(VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x5(x)
ORDER BY n

Wrap it inside a CTE and add a where clause to select desired numbers:

DECLARE @n1 AS INT = 100;
DECLARE @n2 AS INT = 40099;
WITH numbers AS (
    SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) AS n FROM 
    (VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x1(x),
    (VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x2(x),
    (VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x3(x),
    (VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x4(x),
    (VALUES(0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x5(x)
)
SELECT numbers.n
FROM numbers
WHERE n BETWEEN @n1 and @n2
ORDER BY n

-- Generate Numeric Range
-- Source: http://www.sqlservercentral.com/scripts/Miscellaneous/30397/

CREATE TABLE #NumRange(
    n int
)

DECLARE @MinNum int
DECLARE @MaxNum int
DECLARE @I int

SET NOCOUNT ON

SET @I = 0
WHILE @I <= 9 BEGIN
    INSERT INTO #NumRange VALUES(@I)
    SET @I = @I + 1
END


SET @MinNum = 1
SET @MaxNum = 1000000

SELECT  num = a.n +
    (b.n * 10) +
    (c.n * 100) +
    (d.n * 1000) +
    (e.n * 10000)
FROM    #NumRange a
CROSS JOIN #NumRange b
CROSS JOIN #NumRange c
CROSS JOIN #NumRange d
CROSS JOIN #NumRange e
WHERE   a.n +
    (b.n * 10) +
    (c.n * 100) +
    (d.n * 1000) +
    (e.n * 10000) BETWEEN @MinNum AND @MaxNum
ORDER BY a.n +
    (b.n * 10) +
    (c.n * 100) +
    (d.n * 1000) +
    (e.n * 10000) 

DROP TABLE #NumRange

Here is a generic and relatively fast solution that outputs integers from 1 to @n. It works with any positive integer of @n (very large numbers will cause arithmetic overflow) without needing to add or remove table joins. It doesn't require the use of system tables nor do you to change max recursions.

declare @n int = 10000 

;with d as (select * from (values (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) x (d)),
n as ( 
    select d x from d where d > 0 and d <= @n
    union all
    select x * 10 + d from n, d where x * 10 + d <= @n
)
select x from n 

You can add an order by clause to sort the numbers.

I made the below function after reading this thread. Simple and fast:

go
create function numbers(@begin int, @len int)
returns table as return
with d as (
    select 1 v from (values(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0),(0)) d(v)
)
select top (@len) @begin -1 + row_number() over(order by (select null)) v
from d d0
cross join d d1
cross join d d2
cross join d d3
cross join d d4
cross join d d5
cross join d d6
cross join d d7
go

select * from numbers(987654321,500000)

I know I'm 4 years too late, but I stumbled upon yet another alternative answer to this problem. The issue for speed isn't just pre-filtering, but also preventing sorting. It's possible to force the join-order to execute in a manner that the Cartesian product actually counts up as a result of the join. Using slartidan's answer as a jump-off point:

    WITH x AS (SELECT n FROM (VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) v(n))
SELECT ones.n + 10*tens.n + 100*hundreds.n + 1000*thousands.n
FROM x ones,     x tens,      x hundreds,       x thousands
ORDER BY 1

If we know the range we want, we can specify it via @Upper and @Lower. By combining the join hint REMOTE along with TOP, we can calculate only the subset of values we want with nothing wasted.

WITH x AS (SELECT n FROM (VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9)) v(n))
SELECT TOP (1+@Upper-@Lower) @Lower + ones.n + 10*tens.n + 100*hundreds.n + 1000*thousands.n
FROM x thousands
INNER REMOTE JOIN x hundreds on 1=1
INNER REMOTE JOIN x tens on 1=1
INNER REMOTE JOIN x ones on 1=1

The join hint REMOTE forces the optimizer to compare on the right side of the join first. By specifying each join as REMOTE from most to least significant value, the join itself will count upwards by one correctly. No need to filter with a WHERE, or sort with an ORDER BY.

If you want to increase the range, you can continue to add additional joins with progressively higher orders of magnitude, so long as they're ordered from most to least significant in the FROM clause.

Note that this is a query specific to SQL Server 2008 or higher.

2 years later, but I found I had the same issue. Here is how I solved it. (edited to include parameters)

DECLARE @Start INT, @End INT
SET @Start = 1000
SET @End = 1050

SELECT  TOP (@End - @Start+1) ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY S.[object_id])+(@Start - 1) [Numbers]
FROM    sys.all_objects S WITH (NOLOCK)

Here are couple quite optimal and compatible solutions:

USE master;

declare @min as int;    set @min = 1000;
declare @max as int;    set @max = 1050;    --null returns all

--  Up to 256 - 2 048 rows depending on SQL Server version
select  isnull(@min,0)+number.number  as  number
FROM    dbo.spt_values  AS  number
WHERE   number."type"                   =   'P'     --integers
    and (   @max                            is null     --return all
        or  isnull(@min,0)+number.number    <=  @max    --return up to max
    )
order by    number
;

--  Up to 65 536 - 4 194 303 rows depending on SQL Server version
select  isnull(@min,0)+value1.number+(value2.number*numberCount.numbers)  as  number
FROM  dbo.spt_values            AS  value1
  cross join  dbo.spt_values    AS  value2
  cross join (  --get the number of numbers (depends on version)
    select  sum(1)  as  numbers
    from    dbo.spt_values
    where   spt_values."type"   =   'P' --integers
  )                             as  numberCount
WHERE   value1."type" = 'P'   --integers
    and value2."type" = 'P'   --integers
    and (   @max    is null     --return all
        or  isnull(@min,0)+value1.number+(value2.number*numberCount.numbers)    
            <=  @max            --return up to max
    )
order by    number
;

I do it with recursive ctes, but i'm not sure if it is the best way

declare @initial as int = 1000;
declare @final as int =1050;

with cte_n as (
    select @initial as contador
    union all
    select contador+1 from cte_n 
    where contador <@final
) select * from cte_n option (maxrecursion 0)

saludos.

Oracle 12c; Quick but limited:

select rownum+1000 from all_objects fetch first 50 rows only;

Note: limited to row count of all_objects view;

This will also do

DECLARE @startNum INT = 1000;
DECLARE @endNum INT = 1050;
INSERT  INTO dbo.Numbers
        ( Num
        )
        SELECT  CASE WHEN MAX(Num) IS NULL  THEN @startNum
                     ELSE MAX(Num) + 1
                END AS Num
        FROM    dbo.Numbers
GO 51

Update for SQL 2017 and later: If the sequence you desire is < 8k then this will work:

Declare @start_num int = 1000
,   @end_num int = 1050

Select [number] = @start_num + ROW_NUMBER() over (order by (Select null))
from string_split(replicate(' ',@end_num-@start_num-1),' ')

declare @start int = 1000
declare @end    int =1050

;with numcte  
AS  
(  
  SELECT @start [SEQUENCE]  
  UNION all  
  SELECT [SEQUENCE] + 1 FROM numcte WHERE [SEQUENCE] < @end 
)      
SELECT * FROM numcte

This is what I do, it's pretty fast and flexible and not a lot of code.

DECLARE @count  int =   65536;
DECLARE @start  int =   11;
DECLARE @xml    xml =   REPLICATE(CAST('<x/>' AS nvarchar(max)), @count);

; WITH GenerateNumbers(Num) AS
(
    SELECT  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY @count) + @start - 1
    FROM    @xml.nodes('/x') X(T)
)
SELECT  Num
FROM    GenerateNumbers;

Note that (ORDER BY @count) is a dummy. It doesn't do anything but ROW_NUMBER() requires an ORDER BY.

Edit: I realized that the original question was to get a range from x to y. My script can be modified like this to get a range:

DECLARE @start  int =   5;
DECLARE @end    int =   21;
DECLARE @xml    xml =   REPLICATE(CAST('<x/>' AS nvarchar(max)), @end - @start + 1);

; WITH GenerateNumbers(Num) AS
(
    SELECT  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY @end) + @start - 1
    FROM    @xml.nodes('/x') X(T)
)
SELECT  Num
FROM    GenerateNumbers;

This only works for sequences as long as some application table has rows. Assume I want sequence from 1..100, and have application table dbo.foo with column (of numeric or string type) foo.bar:

select 
top 100
row_number() over (order by dbo.foo.bar) as seq
from dbo.foo

Despite its presence in an order by clause, dbo.foo.bar does not have to have distinct or even non-null values.

Of course, SQL Server 2012 has sequence objects, so there's a natural solution in that product.