> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/cortex-xdr-3.x/cortex-xdr-3.x-documentation/cortex-xdr-xql/functions/rank.md).

# rank

**Syntax**

```programlisting
windowcomp rank() [by <field> [,<field>,...]] sort [asc|desc] <field1> [, [asc|desc] <field2>,...] [as <alias>]
```

**Description**

The `rank()` function is a numbering function that is used in combination with a [windowcomp](/cortex-xdr-3.x/cortex-xdr-3.x-documentation/cortex-xdr-xql/stages/windowcomp.md) stage. This function is used to return a single value for the ordinal (1-based) rank for each row in the group of rows using a combination of the `by` clause and `sort` (mandatory).

**Example**

Return an average ranking for the avgerage CPU usage on `metric_type=HOST`. Allows you to see changes in the CPU usage compared to all hosts in the environment. The query returns a maximum of 100 `it_metrics` records. The results are ordered by `ft` in decending order in the `rank` column.

```programlisting
  dataset = it_metrics
| filter metric_type = HOST
| alter cpu_avg_str = to_string(cpu_avg)
| alter ft = date_floor(_time, "w")
| alter dt = date_floor(_time, "d")
| limit 100
| windowcomp rank() by ft sort desc cpu_avg_str as rank
| filter (agent_hostname contains $host_name)
| comp avg(rank) by dt
```


---

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