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:
If you don't know what a numbers table is, look here: Why should I consider using an auxiliary numbers table?
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 uses 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) < 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 <= 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<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 <= 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.