Window functions in mapping data flow

APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

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Data flows are available both in Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse Pipelines. This article applies to mapping data flows. If you are new to transformations, please refer to the introductory article Transform data using a mapping data flow.

The following articles provide details about window functions supported by Azure Data Factory and Azure Synapse Analytics in mapping data flows.

Window function list

The following functions are only available in window transformations.

Window function	Task
cumeDist	The CumeDist function computes the position of a value relative to all values in the partition. The result is the number of rows preceding or equal to the current row in the ordering of the partition divided by the total number of rows in the window partition. Any tie values in the ordering will evaluate to the same position.
denseRank	Computes the rank of a value in a group of values specified in a window's order by clause. The result is one plus the number of rows preceding or equal to the current row in the ordering of the partition. The values will not produce gaps in the sequence. Dense Rank works even when data is not sorted and looks for change in values.
lag	Gets the value of the first parameter evaluated n rows before the current row. The second parameter is the number of rows to look back and the default value is 1. If there are not as many rows a value of null is returned unless a default value is specified.
lead	Gets the value of the first parameter evaluated n rows after the current row. The second parameter is the number of rows to look forward and the default value is 1. If there are not as many rows a value of null is returned unless a default value is specified.
nTile	The NTile function divides the rows for each window partition into n buckets ranging from 1 to at most n. Bucket values will differ by at most 1. If the number of rows in the partition does not divide evenly into the number of buckets, then the remainder values are distributed one per bucket, starting with the first bucket. The NTile function is useful for the calculation of tertiles, quartiles, deciles, and other common summary statistics. The function calculates two variables during initialization: The size of a regular bucket will have one extra row added to it. Both variables are based on the size of the current partition. During the calculation process the function keeps track of the current row number, the current bucket number, and the row number at which the bucket will change (bucketThreshold). When the current row number reaches bucket threshold, the bucket value is increased by one and the threshold is increased by the bucket size (plus one extra if the current bucket is padded).
rank	Computes the rank of a value in a group of values specified in a window's order by clause. The result is one plus the number of rows preceding or equal to the current row in the ordering of the partition. The values will produce gaps in the sequence. Rank works even when data is not sorted and looks for change in values.
rowNumber	Assigns a sequential row numbering for rows in a window starting with 1.

Related content

• List of all aggregate functions.
• List of all array functions.
• List of all cached lookup functions.
• List of all conversion functions.
• List of all date and time functions.
• List of all expression functions.
• List of all map functions.
• List of all metafunctions.
• Usage details of all data transformation expressions.
• Learn how to use Expression Builder.