Gives a T-SQL window function its window: PARTITION BY, ORDER BY and, if wanted, a ROWS or RANGE frame. Rankings and running totals can then be worked out while every row is kept.
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In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains OVER in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- T-SQL
The dialect of SQL that Microsoft uses for Azure SQL and SQL Server. Azure Monitor logs are queried with KQL instead.
- Window function
A function evaluated OVER a window defined by PARTITION BY, ORDER BY and optionally a frame; unlike GROUP BY aggregation it doesn't collapse rows, but adds to each one a value worked out from its related rows. Examples are RANK, ROW_NUMBER, LAG and running totals.
- WINDOW
Returns rows from a sorted, optionally partitioned table, either at fixed positions (ABS) or relative to the current row (REL). Running totals plus moving averages are common uses.
- Azure AI Search partition
Storage and I/O unit of a search service, each holding part of the indexes. Adding partitions increases storage and indexing throughput; the number of search units equals replicas multiplied by partitions.
- ORDER BY
Sorts what a SQL query returns on one or more columns. Leave it out and rows arrive in no guaranteed sequence.
- Window frame
An optional ROWS or RANGE BETWEEN ... AND ... part of OVER that narrows which partition rows each calculation considers. A running total, for example, runs from UNBOUNDED PRECEDING to CURRENT ROW.
Related terms
- AAD DC Administrators
Grants members admin rights over joined VMs and control of Group Policy for AADDC containers in an Entra Domain Services managed domain. Enterprise Admins and Domain Admins rights don't exist there.
- AADSignInEventsBeta
An advanced hunting table holding both interactive and non-interactive Microsoft Entra sign-ins, available with Entra ID P2. From 19 October 2026 EntraIdSignInEvents takes over from it, and existing queries move across automatically.
- AAGUID
Passkey profiles and authentication strengths can permit or refuse particular authenticators by this value. It is a 128-bit ID handed over by the passkey (FIDO2) maker when a key is registered, telling Microsoft Entra which make and model it is.
- Account driven user enrollment
A way to bring a personally owned iPhone or iPad (iOS/iPadOS 15 or later) under management by signing in with a work account in Settings. Corporate data is kept on its own managed APFS volume, the device is never supervised, and the method takes over from the deprecated Company Portal–based user enrolment.
- actionOnUnmanage
Controls what a deployment stack does with resources that drop out of its template: detach them or delete them. The delete option takes over from complete deployment mode, which is on the way to deprecation.
- Active geo-replication
Azure SQL Database feature that replicates a single database to as many as four readable secondaries, failed over manually. SQL Managed Instance does not offer it.
- ADFS
Active Directory Federation Services, Microsoft's identity federation product. VCF Identity Broker accepts it as an outside IdP (over OIDC or SAML) so people can sign in to VCF.
- ADOMD
The .NET client library for Analysis Services that tools use to run queries against a semantic model over the XMLA endpoint. Administrative work is left to its sibling library, AMO.