RANK
The RANK parameter determines how rank numbers are assigned when a request contains the [RANKED] BY [HIGHEST|LOWEST] n phrase and multiple data values fall into the same rank category. If the rank number for the next group of values is the next sequential integer, the ranking method is called dense. If the rank number for the next group of values is the previous rank number plus the number of multiples, the ranking method is called sparse.
The syntax is:
SET RANK = {DENSE|SPARSE}
where:
Specifies dense ranking. With this method, each rank number is the next sequential integer, even when the same rank is assigned to multiple data values. DENSE is the default value.
Specifies sparse ranking. With this method, if the same rank number is assigned to multiple data values, the next rank number will be the previous rank number plus the number of multiples.