In an Oracle database, what is the difference between ROWNUM and ROW_NUMBER?

Question

What is the difference between ROWNUM and ROW_NUMBER ?

Answer 1

ROWNUM is a "pseudocolumn" that assigns a number to each row returned by a query:

SQL> select rownum, ename, deptno
  2  from emp;

    ROWNUM ENAME          DEPTNO
---------- ---------- ----------
         1 SMITH              99
         2 ALLEN              30
         3 WARD               30
         4 JONES              20
         5 MARTIN             30
         6 BLAKE              30
         7 CLARK              10
         8 SCOTT              20
         9 KING               10
        10 TURNER             30
        11 FORD               20
        12 MILLER             10

ROW_NUMBER is an analytic function that assigns a number to each row according to its ordering within a group of rows:

SQL> select ename, deptno, row_number() over (partition by deptno order by ename) rn
  2  from emp;

ENAME          DEPTNO         RN
---------- ---------- ----------
CLARK              10          1
KING               10          2
MILLER             10          3
FORD               20          1
JONES              20          2
SCOTT              20          3
ALLEN              30          1
BLAKE              30          2
MARTIN             30          3
TURNER             30          4
WARD               30          5
SMITH              99          1