Find the Nth Highest Value With Dense Rank

• Example
• Why this pattern helps
• Notes

Use this when the business question is about the nth highest value rather than the nth physical row.

Example

with ranked_salaries as (
    select
        employee_id,
        salary,
        dense_rank() over (order by salary desc) as salary_rank
    from hr.employees
)
select
    employee_id,
    salary
from ranked_salaries
where salary_rank = 3;

Why this pattern helps

• handles ties without dropping valid rows
• is easier to explain than nested max() logic
• adapts cleanly to top-n and per-group ranking problems

Notes

• replace 3 with any target rank you need
• add partition by department_id to find the nth highest value within a group
• use row_number() instead when you truly need the nth row only