What is the best way to create and populate a numbers table

Question

I ve seen many different ways to create and populate a numbers table   However  what is the best way to create and populate one   With  best  being defined from most to least important    Table created with optimal indexing rows generated fastest simple code used to create and populate   If you don t know what a numbers table is  look here  Why should I consider using an auxiliary numbers table

User · Answer

This is a repackaging of the accepted answer - but in a way that lets you compare them all to each other for yourself - the top 3 algorithms are compared  and comments explain why other methods are excluded  and you can run against your own setup to see how they each perform with the size of sequence that you desire   SET NOCOUNT ON   -- -- Set the count of numbers that you want in your sequence     -- DECLARE  NumberOfNumbers int   10000000  -- --  Some notes on choosing a useful length for your sequence     --      For a sequence of  100 numbers -- winner depends on preference of min max avg runtime      I prefer PhilKelley algo here - edit the algo so RowSet2 is max RowSet CTE  --      For a sequence of   1k numbers -- winner depends on preference of min max avg runtime      Sadly PhilKelley algo is generally lowest ranked in this bucket  but could be tweaked to perform better  --      For a sequence of  10k numbers -- a clear winner emerges for this bucket --      For a sequence of 100k numbers -- do not test any looping methods at this size or above     --                                        the previous winner fails  a different method is need to guarantee the full sequence desired --      For a sequence of  1MM numbers -- the statistics aren t changing much between the algorithms - choose one based on your own goals or tweaks --      For a sequence of 10MM numbers -- only one of the methods yields the desired sequence  and the numbers are much closer than for smaller sequences  DECLARE  TestIteration int   0  DECLARE  MaxIterations int   10  DECLARE  MethodName varchar 128    -- SQL SERVER 2017 Syntax Support needed DROP TABLE IF EXISTS  TimingTest CREATE TABLE  TimingTest  MethodName varchar 128   TestIteration int  StartDate DateTime2  EndDate DateTime2  ElapsedTime decimal 38 0   ItemCount decimal 38 0   MaxNumber decimal 38 0   MinNumber decimal 38 0    -- --  Conduct the test     -- WHILE  TestIteration  lt   MaxIterations BEGIN     -- Be sure that the test moves forward     SET  TestIteration    1       -- This method has been removed  as it is BY FAR  the slowest method     -- This test shows that  looping should be avoided  likely at all costs  if one places a value   premium on speed of execution          --     -- METHOD - Fast looping     --      -- Prep for the test     DROP TABLE IF EXISTS  Numbers   Test       CREATE TABLE  Numbers   Test   Number INT NOT NULL        -- Method information     SET  MethodName    FastLoop        -- Record the start of the test     INSERT INTO  TimingTest MethodName  TestIteration  StartDate      SELECT  MethodName   TestIteration  GETDATE        -- Run the algorithm     DECLARE  i INT   1      WHILE  i  lt    NumberOfNumbers     BEGIN         INSERT INTO  Numbers   Test  Number  VALUES   i           SELECT  i    i   1      END       ALTER TABLE  Numbers   Test  ADD CONSTRAINT PK Numbers Test Number PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number       -- Record the end of the test     UPDATE tt         SET              EndDate   GETDATE       FROM  TimingTest tt     WHERE tt MethodName    MethodName     and tt TestIteration    TestIteration      -- And the stats about the numbers in the sequence     UPDATE tt         SET              ItemCount   results ItemCount              MaxNumber   results MaxNumber              MinNumber   results MinNumber     FROM  TimingTest tt     CROSS JOIN           SELECT COUNT Number  as ItemCount  MAX Number  as MaxNumber  MIN Number  as MinNumber FROM  Numbers   Test        results     WHERE tt MethodName    MethodName     and tt TestIteration    TestIteration         -- This method requires GO statements  which would break the script  also - this answer does not appear to be the fastest  AND  seems to perform  magic      --     -- METHOD -  Semi-Looping      --      -- Prep for the test     DROP TABLE IF EXISTS  Numbers   Test       CREATE TABLE  Numbers   Test   Number INT NOT NULL        -- Method information     SET  MethodName    SemiLoop        -- Record the start of the test     INSERT INTO  TimingTest MethodName  TestIteration  StartDate      SELECT  MethodName   TestIteration  GETDATE        -- Run the algorithm      INSERT  Numbers   Test  values  1   --    GO --required      INSERT  Numbers   Test  SELECT Number    SELECT COUNT    FROM  Numbers   Test   FROM  Numbers   Test  --    GO 14 --will create 16384 total rows      ALTER TABLE  Numbers   Test  ADD CONSTRAINT PK Numbers Test Number PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number       -- Record the end of the test     UPDATE tt         SET              EndDate   GETDATE       FROM  TimingTest tt     WHERE tt MethodName    MethodName     and tt TestIteration    TestIteration      -- And the stats about the numbers in the sequence     UPDATE tt         SET              ItemCount   results ItemCount              MaxNumber   results MaxNumber              MinNumber   results MinNumber     FROM  TimingTest tt     CROSS JOIN           SELECT COUNT Number  as ItemCount  MAX Number  as MaxNumber  MIN Number  as MinNumber FROM  Numbers   Test        results     WHERE tt MethodName    MethodName     and tt TestIteration    TestIteration        --     -- METHOD - Philip Kelley s algo      --           needs tweaking to match the desired length of sequence in order to optimize its performance  relies more on the coder to properly tweak the algorithm      --      -- Prep for the test     DROP TABLE IF EXISTS  Numbers   Test       CREATE TABLE  Numbers   Test   Number INT NOT NULL        -- Method information     SET  MethodName    PhilKelley        -- Record the start of the test     INSERT INTO  TimingTest MethodName  TestIteration  StartDate      SELECT  MethodName   TestIteration  GETDATE        -- Run the algorithm       WITH     RowSet0 as  select 1 as Item union all select 1                --          2 rows   -- We only have to name the column in the first select  the second union select inherits the column name     RowSet1 as  select 1 as Item from RowSet0 as A  RowSet0 as B   --          4 rows     RowSet2 as  select 1 as Item from RowSet1 as A  RowSet1 as B   --         16 rows     RowSet3 as  select 1 as Item from RowSet2 as A  RowSet2 as B   --        256 rows     RowSet4 as  select 1 as Item from RowSet3 as A  RowSet3 as B   --      65536 rows  65k      RowSet5 as  select 1 as Item from RowSet4 as A  RowSet4 as B   -- 4294967296 rows  4BB      -- Add more RowSetX to get higher and higher numbers of rows         -- Each successive RowSetX results in squaring the previously available number of rows     Tally   as  select row number   over  order by Item  as Number from RowSet5  -- This is what gives us the sequence of integers  always select from the terminal CTE expression     -- Note  testing of this specific use case has shown that making Tally as a sub-query instead of a terminal CTE expression is slower  always  - be sure to follow this pattern closely for max performance     INSERT INTO  Numbers   Test   Number      SELECT o Number     FROM Tally o     WHERE o Number  lt    NumberOfNumbers      ALTER TABLE  Numbers   Test  ADD CONSTRAINT PK Numbers Test Number PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number       -- Record the end of the test     UPDATE tt         SET              EndDate   GETDATE       FROM  TimingTest tt     WHERE tt MethodName    MethodName     and tt TestIteration    TestIteration      -- And the stats about the numbers in the sequence     UPDATE tt         SET              ItemCount   results ItemCount              MaxNumber   results MaxNumber              MinNumber   results MinNumber     FROM  TimingTest tt     CROSS JOIN           SELECT COUNT Number  as ItemCount  MAX Number  as MaxNumber  MIN Number  as MinNumber FROM  Numbers   Test        results     WHERE tt MethodName    MethodName     and tt TestIteration    TestIteration      --     -- METHOD - Mladen Prajdic answer     --      -- Prep for the test     DROP TABLE IF EXISTS  Numbers   Test       CREATE TABLE  Numbers   Test   Number INT NOT NULL        -- Method information     SET  MethodName    MladenPrajdic        -- Record the start of the test     INSERT INTO  TimingTest MethodName  TestIteration  StartDate      SELECT  MethodName   TestIteration  GETDATE        -- Run the algorithm     INSERT INTO  Numbers   Test  Number      SELECT TOP   NumberOfNumbers  row number   over order by t1 number  as N     FROM master  spt values t1      CROSS JOIN master  spt values t2      ALTER TABLE  Numbers   Test  ADD CONSTRAINT PK Numbers Test Number PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number       -- Record the end of the test     UPDATE tt         SET              EndDate   GETDATE       FROM  TimingTest tt     WHERE tt MethodName    MethodName     and tt TestIteration    TestIteration      -- And the stats about the numbers in the sequence     UPDATE tt         SET              ItemCount   results ItemCount              MaxNumber   results MaxNumber              MinNumber   results MinNumber     FROM  TimingTest tt     CROSS JOIN           SELECT COUNT Number  as ItemCount  MAX Number  as MaxNumber  MIN Number  as MinNumber FROM  Numbers   Test        results     WHERE tt MethodName    MethodName     and tt TestIteration    TestIteration      --     -- METHOD - Single INSERT     --       -- Prep for the test     DROP TABLE IF EXISTS  Numbers   Test       -- The Table creation is part of this algorithm          -- Method information     SET  MethodName    SingleInsert        -- Record the start of the test     INSERT INTO  TimingTest MethodName  TestIteration  StartDate      SELECT  MethodName   TestIteration  GETDATE        -- Run the algorithm     SELECT TOP   NumberOfNumbers  IDENTITY int 1 1  AS Number     INTO  Numbers   Test      FROM sys objects s1       -- use sys columns if you don t get enough rows returned to generate all the numbers you need     CROSS JOIN sys objects s2 -- use sys columns if you don t get enough rows returned to generate all the numbers you need      ALTER TABLE  Numbers   Test  ADD CONSTRAINT PK Numbers Test Number PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number       -- Record the end of the test     UPDATE tt         SET              EndDate   GETDATE       FROM  TimingTest tt     WHERE tt MethodName    MethodName     and tt TestIteration    TestIteration      -- And the stats about the numbers in the sequence     UPDATE tt         SET              ItemCount   results ItemCount              MaxNumber   results MaxNumber              MinNumber   results MinNumber     FROM  TimingTest tt     CROSS JOIN           SELECT COUNT Number  as ItemCount  MAX Number  as MaxNumber  MIN Number  as MinNumber FROM  Numbers   Test        results     WHERE tt MethodName    MethodName     and tt TestIteration    TestIteration END  -- Calculate the timespan for each of the runs UPDATE tt     SET         ElapsedTime   DATEDIFF MICROSECOND  StartDate  EndDate  FROM  TimingTest tt  -- -- Report the results     -- SELECT      MethodName  AVG ElapsedTime    AVG ItemCount  as TimePerRecord  CAST AVG ItemCount  as bigint  as SequenceLength      MAX ElapsedTime  as MaxTime  MIN ElapsedTime  as MinTime      MAX MaxNumber  as MaxNumber  MIN MinNumber  as MinNumber FROM  TimingTest tt GROUP by tt MethodName ORDER BY TimePerRecord ASC  MaxTime ASC  MinTime ASC

User · Answer

here are some code examples taken from the web and from answers to this question     For Each Method  I have modified the original code so each use the same table and column  NumbersTest and Number  with 10 000 rows or as close to that as possible   Also  I have provided links to the place of origin   METHOD 1 here is a very slow looping method from here avg 13 01 seconds ran 3 times removed highest  here are times in seconds  12 42  13 60  DROP TABLE NumbersTest DECLARE  RunDate datetime SET  RunDate GETDATE   CREATE TABLE NumbersTest Number INT IDENTITY 1 1    SET NOCOUNT ON WHILE COALESCE SCOPE IDENTITY    0   lt  100000 BEGIN      INSERT dbo NumbersTest DEFAULT VALUES  END SET NOCOUNT OFF -- Add a primary key clustered index to the numbers table ALTER TABLE NumbersTest ADD CONSTRAINT PK NumbersTest PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number  PRINT CONVERT varchar 20  datediff ms  RunDate GETDATE    1000 0    seconds  SELECT COUNT    FROM NumbersTest   METHOD 2 here is a much faster looping one from here avg 1 1658 seconds ran 11 times removed highest  here are times in seconds  1 117  1 140  1 203  1 170  1 173  1 156  1 203  1 153  1 173  1 170  DROP TABLE NumbersTest DECLARE  RunDate datetime SET  RunDate GETDATE   CREATE TABLE NumbersTest  Number INT NOT NULL   DECLARE  i INT  SELECT  i   1  SET NOCOUNT ON WHILE  i  lt   10000 BEGIN     INSERT INTO dbo NumbersTest Number  VALUES   i       SELECT  i    i   1  END  SET NOCOUNT OFF ALTER TABLE NumbersTest ADD CONSTRAINT PK NumbersTest PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number  PRINT CONVERT varchar 20  datediff ms  RunDate GETDATE    1000 0    seconds  SELECT COUNT    FROM NumbersTest   METHOD 3 Here is a single INSERT based on code from here avg 488 6 milliseconds ran 11 times removed highest  here are times in milliseconds  686  673  623  686 343 343 376 360 343 453  DROP TABLE NumbersTest DECLARE  RunDate datetime SET  RunDate GETDATE   CREATE TABLE NumbersTest  Number  int  not null     WITH Nums Number  AS  SELECT 1 AS Number  UNION ALL  SELECT Number 1 FROM Nums where Number lt 10000   insert into NumbersTest Number      select Number from Nums option maxrecursion 10000  ALTER TABLE NumbersTest ADD CONSTRAINT PK NumbersTest PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number  PRINT CONVERT varchar 20  datediff ms  RunDate GETDATE       milliseconds  SELECT COUNT    FROM NumbersTest   METHOD 4 here is a  semi-looping  method from here avg 348 3 milliseconds  it was hard to get good timing because of the  GO  in the middle of the code  any suggestions would be appreciated  ran 11 times removed highest  here are times in milliseconds    356  360  283  346  360  376  326  373  330  373  DROP TABLE NumbersTest DROP TABLE  RunDate CREATE TABLE  RunDate  RunDate datetime  INSERT INTO  RunDate VALUES GETDATE    CREATE TABLE NumbersTest  Number int NOT NULL   INSERT NumbersTest values  1   GO --required INSERT NumbersTest SELECT Number    SELECT COUNT    FROM NumbersTest  FROM NumbersTest GO 14 --will create 16384 total rows ALTER TABLE NumbersTest ADD CONSTRAINT PK NumbersTest PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number  SELECT CONVERT varchar 20  datediff ms RunDate GETDATE       milliseconds  FROM  RunDate SELECT COUNT    FROM NumbersTest   METHOD 5 here is a single INSERT from Philip Kelley s answer avg 92 7 milliseconds ran 11 times removed highest  here are times in milliseconds  80  96  96  93  110  110  80  76  93  93  DROP TABLE NumbersTest DECLARE  RunDate datetime SET  RunDate GETDATE   CREATE TABLE NumbersTest  Number  int  not null     WITH   Pass0 as  select 1 as C union all select 1   --2 rows   Pass1 as  select 1 as C from Pass0 as A  Pass0 as B  --4 rows   Pass2 as  select 1 as C from Pass1 as A  Pass1 as B  --16 rows   Pass3 as  select 1 as C from Pass2 as A  Pass2 as B  --256 rows   Pass4 as  select 1 as C from Pass3 as A  Pass3 as B  --65536 rows   --I removed Pass5  since I m only populating the Numbers table to 10 000   Tally as  select row number   over order by C  as Number from Pass4  INSERT NumbersTest          Number      SELECT Number         FROM Tally         WHERE Number  lt   10000 ALTER TABLE NumbersTest ADD CONSTRAINT PK NumbersTest PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number  PRINT CONVERT varchar 20  datediff ms  RunDate GETDATE       milliseconds  SELECT COUNT    FROM NumbersTest   METHOD 6 here is a single INSERT from Mladen Prajdic answer avg 82 3 milliseconds ran 11 times removed highest  here are times in milliseconds  80  80  93  76  93  63  93  76  93  76  DROP TABLE NumbersTest DECLARE  RunDate datetime SET  RunDate GETDATE   CREATE TABLE NumbersTest  Number  int  not null    INSERT INTO NumbersTest Number  SELECT TOP 10000 row number   over order by t1 number  as N FROM master  spt values t1      CROSS JOIN master  spt values t2 ALTER TABLE NumbersTest ADD CONSTRAINT PK NumbersTest PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number   PRINT CONVERT varchar 20  datediff ms  RunDate GETDATE       milliseconds  SELECT COUNT    FROM NumbersTest   METHOD 7 here is a single INSERT based on the code from here avg 56 3 milliseconds ran 11 times removed highest  here are times in milliseconds  63  50  63  46  60  63  63  46  63  46  DROP TABLE NumbersTest DECLARE  RunDate datetime SET  RunDate GETDATE   SELECT TOP 10000 IDENTITY int 1 1  AS Number     INTO NumbersTest     FROM sys objects s1       --use sys columns if you don t get enough rows returned to generate all the numbers you need     CROSS JOIN sys objects s2 --use sys columns if you don t get enough rows returned to generate all the numbers you need ALTER TABLE NumbersTest ADD CONSTRAINT PK NumbersTest PRIMARY KEY CLUSTERED  Number  PRINT CONVERT varchar 20  datediff ms  RunDate GETDATE       milliseconds  SELECT COUNT    FROM NumbersTest   After looking at all these methods  I really like Method 7  which was the fastest and the code is fairly simple too

User · Answer

i use this which is fast as hell   insert into Numbers N  select top 1000000 row number   over order by t1 number  as N from   master  spt values t1         cross join master  spt values t2

User · Answer

I start with the following template  which is derived from numerous printings of Itzik Ben-Gan s routine    WITH   Pass0 as  select 1 as C union all select 1   --2 rows   Pass1 as  select 1 as C from Pass0 as A  Pass0 as B  --4 rows   Pass2 as  select 1 as C from Pass1 as A  Pass1 as B  --16 rows   Pass3 as  select 1 as C from Pass2 as A  Pass2 as B  --256 rows   Pass4 as  select 1 as C from Pass3 as A  Pass3 as B  --65536 rows   Pass5 as  select 1 as C from Pass4 as A  Pass4 as B  --4 294 967 296 rows   Tally as  select row number   over order by C  as Number from Pass5   select Number from Tally where Number  lt   1000000   The  WHERE N lt   1000000  clause limits the output to  1 to 1 million  and can easily be adjusted to your desired range   Since this is a WITH clause  it can be worked into an INSERT    SELECT    like so   --  Sample use  create one million rows CREATE TABLE dbo Example  ExampleId  int  not null     DECLARE  RowsToCreate int SET  RowsToCreate   1000000  --   Table of numbers  data generator  as per Itzik Ben-Gan  from multiple sources   WITH   Pass0 as  select 1 as C union all select 1   --2 rows   Pass1 as  select 1 as C from Pass0 as A  Pass0 as B  --4 rows   Pass2 as  select 1 as C from Pass1 as A  Pass1 as B  --16 rows   Pass3 as  select 1 as C from Pass2 as A  Pass2 as B  --256 rows   Pass4 as  select 1 as C from Pass3 as A  Pass3 as B  --65536 rows   Pass5 as  select 1 as C from Pass4 as A  Pass4 as B  --4 294 967 296 rows   Tally as  select row number   over order by C  as Number from Pass5  INSERT Example  ExampleId   select Number   from Tally   where Number  lt    RowsToCreate   Indexing the table after it s built will be the fastest way to index it   Oh  and I d refer to it as a  Tally  table  I think this is a common term  and you can find loads of tricks and examples by Googling it

User · Answer

For anyone looking for an Azure solution  SET NOCOUNT ON     CREATE TABLE Numbers  n bigint PRIMARY KEY      GO     DECLARE  numbers table number int     WITH numbers number  as       SELECT 1 AS number    UNION all    SELECT number 1 FROM numbers WHERE number lt 10000       INSERT INTO  numbers number    SELECT number FROM numbers OPTION maxrecursion 10000  INSERT INTO Numbers n   SELECT number FROM  numbers   Sourced from the sql azure team blog http   azure microsoft com blog 2010 09 16 create-a-numbers-table-in-sql-azure

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I know this thread is old and answered  but there is a way to squeeze a little extra performance out of Method 7   Instead of this  essentially method 7 but with some ease of use polish    DECLARE  BIT AS BIT   0 IF OBJECT ID  tempdb   TALLY   IS NOT NULL   DROP TABLE  TALLY DECLARE  RunDate datetime SET  RunDate GETDATE   SELECT TOP 10000 IDENTITY int 1 1  AS Number     INTO  TALLY     FROM sys objects s1       --use sys columns if you don t get enough rows returned to generate all the numbers you need     CROSS JOIN sys objects s2 --use sys co ALTER TABLE  TALLY ADD PRIMARY KEY Number  PRINT CONVERT varchar 20  datediff ms  RunDate GETDATE       milliseconds    Try this   DECLARE  BIT AS BIT   0 IF OBJECT ID  tempdb   TALLY   IS NOT NULL   DROP TABLE  TALLY DECLARE  RunDate datetime SET  RunDate GETDATE   SELECT TOP 10000 IDENTITY int 1 1  AS Number     INTO  TALLY     FROM         SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T2      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T4      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T8      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T16      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T32      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T64      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T128      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T256      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T512      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T1024      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T2048      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T4096      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T8192      CROSS JOIN   SELECT  BIT  X  UNION ALL SELECT  BIT   T16384  ALTER TABLE  TALLY ADD PRIMARY KEY Number  PRINT CONVERT varchar 20  datediff ms  RunDate GETDATE       milliseconds    On my server this takes  10 ms as opposed to the  16-20 ms when selecting from sys objects   It also has the added benefit of not being dependent on how many objects are in sys objects   While it s pretty safe  it s technically a dependency and the other one goes faster anyway   I think the speed boost is down to using BITs if you change   DECLARE  BIT AS BIT   0   to   DECLARE  BIT AS BIGINT   0   It adds  8-10 ms to the total time on my server   That said  when you scale up to 1 000 000 records BIT vs BIGINT doesn t appreciably affect my query anymore  but it still runs around  680ms vs  730ms from sys objects

User · Answer

Here is a couple of extra methods  Method 1  IF OBJECT ID  dbo Numbers    U   IS NOT NULL     DROP TABLE dbo Numbers GO  CREATE TABLE Numbers  Number int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY   GO  DECLARE  i int   1  INSERT INTO dbo Numbers  Number   VALUES  1   2    WHILE 2  i  lt  1048576 BEGIN     INSERT INTO dbo Numbers  Number       SELECT Number   2  i     FROM dbo Numbers      SET  i     ROWCOUNT  END GO  SELECT COUNT    FROM Numbers AS RowCownt --1048576 rows   Method 2  IF OBJECT ID  dbo Numbers    U   IS NOT NULL     DROP TABLE dbo Numbers GO  CREATE TABLE dbo Numbers  Number int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY   GO  DECLARE  i INT   0   INSERT INTO dbo Numbers  Number   VALUES  1    WHILE  i  lt   9 BEGIN     INSERT INTO dbo Numbers  Number      SELECT N Number   POWER 4   i    D Digit      FROM dbo Numbers AS N         CROSS JOIN  VALUES 1   2   3   AS D Digit      ORDER BY D Digit  N Number     SET  i    i   1  END GO  SELECT COUNT    FROM dbo Numbers AS RowCownt --1048576 rows   Method 3  IF OBJECT ID  dbo Numbers    U   IS NOT NULL     DROP TABLE dbo Numbers GO  CREATE TABLE Numbers  Number int identity NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY  T bit NULL    WITH     T1 T  AS  SELECT T FROM  VALUES  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10   AS T T   --10 rows     T2 T  AS  SELECT A T FROM T1 AS A CROSS JOIN T1 AS B CROSS JOIN T1 AS C  --1 000 rows     T3 T  AS  SELECT A T FROM T2 AS A CROSS JOIN T2 AS B CROSS JOIN T2 AS C  --1 000 000 000 rows  INSERT INTO dbo Numbers T  SELECT TOP  1048576  NULL FROM T3   ALTER TABLE Numbers     DROP COLUMN T   GO  SELECT COUNT    FROM dbo Numbers AS RowCownt --1048576 rows   Method 4  taken from Defensive Database Programming book by Alex Kuznetsov  IF OBJECT ID  dbo Numbers    U   IS NOT NULL     DROP TABLE dbo Numbers GO  CREATE TABLE Numbers  Number int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY   GO  DECLARE  i INT   1    INSERT INTO dbo Numbers  Number   VALUES  1    WHILE  i  lt  524289 --1048576 BEGIN       INSERT INTO dbo Numbers  Number       SELECT Number    i      FROM dbo Numbers       SET  i    i   2    END GO  SELECT COUNT    FROM dbo Numbers AS RowCownt --1048576 rows   Method 5  taken from Arrays and Lists in SQL Server 2005 and Beyond article by Erland Sommarskog  IF OBJECT ID  dbo Numbers    U   IS NOT NULL     DROP TABLE dbo Numbers GO  CREATE TABLE Numbers  Number int NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY   GO  WITH digits  d  AS      SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 2 UNION ALL SELECT 3 UNION ALL    SELECT 4 UNION ALL SELECT 5 UNION ALL SELECT 6 UNION ALL    SELECT 7 UNION ALL SELECT 8 UNION ALL SELECT 9 UNION ALL    SELECT 0  INSERT INTO Numbers  Number     SELECT Number    FROM    SELECT i d   ii d   10   iii d   100   iv d   1000                     v d   10000   vi d   100000 AS Number            FROM   digits i            CROSS  JOIN digits ii            CROSS  JOIN digits iii            CROSS  JOIN digits iv            CROSS  JOIN digits v            CROSS  JOIN digits vi  AS Numbers    WHERE  Number  gt  0 GO  SELECT COUNT    FROM dbo Numbers AS RowCownt --999999 rows   Summary  Among those 5 methods  method 3 seems to be the fastest

User · Answer

I use numbers tables for primarily dummying up reports in BIRT without having to fiddle around with dynamic creation of recordsets   I do the same with dates  having a table spanning from 10 years in the past to 10 years in the future  and hours of the day for more detailed reporting   It s a neat trick to be able to get values for all dates even if your  real  data tables don t have data for them   I have a script which I use to create these  something like  this is from memory    drop table numbers  commit  create table numbers  n integer primary key   commit  insert into numbers values  0   commit  insert into numbers select n 1 from numbers  commit  insert into numbers select n 2 from numbers  commit  insert into numbers select n 4 from numbers  commit  insert into numbers select n 8 from numbers  commit  insert into numbers select n 16 from numbers  commit  insert into numbers select n 32 from numbers  commit  insert into numbers select n 64 from numbers  commit    The number of rows doubles with each line so it doesn t take a lot to produce truly huge tables   I m not sure I agree with you that it s important to be created fast since you only create it once  The cost of that is amortized over all the accesses to it  rendering that time fairly insignificant

User · Answer

Here is a short and fast in-memory solution that I came up with utilizing the Table Valued Constructors introduced in SQL Server 2008   It will return 1 000 000 rows  however you can either add remove CROSS JOINs  or use TOP clause to modify this    WITH v AS  SELECT   FROM  VALUES 0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   0   v z    SELECT N FROM  SELECT ROW NUMBER   OVER  ORDER BY v1 z -1 N FROM v v1      CROSS JOIN v v2 CROSS JOIN v v3 CROSS JOIN v v4 CROSS JOIN v v5 CROSS JOIN v v6  Nums   Note that this could be quickly calculated on the fly  or  even better  stored in a permanent table  just add an INTO clause after the SELECT N segment  with a primary key on the N field for improved efficiency

User · Answer

If you re just doing this in either SQL Server Management Studio or sqlcmd exe  you can use the fact that the batch separator allows you to repeat the batch   CREATE TABLE Number  N INT IDENTITY 1 1  PRIMARY KEY NOT NULL   GO  INSERT INTO Number DEFAULT VALUES  GO 100000   This will insert 100000 records into the Numbers table using the default value of the next identity   It s slow   It compares to METHOD 1 in  KM  s answer  which is the slowest of the examples   However  it s about as code light as it gets   You could speed it up somewhat by adding the primary key constraint after the insert batch

User · Answer

Some of the suggested methods are basing on system objects  for example on the  sys objects    They are assuming these system objects contain enough records to generate our numbers    I would not base on anything which does not belong to my application and over which I do not have full control  For example  the content of these sys tables may change  the tables may not be valid anymore in new version of SQL etc   As a solution  we can create our own table with records  We then use that one instead these system related objects  table with all numbers should be fine if we know the range in advance otherwise we could go for the one to do the cross join on    The CTE based solution is working fine but it has limits related to the nested loops

[sql-server] What is the best way to create and populate a numbers table?

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