# ntile

Divides an ordered partition into a requested number of buckets and returns the bucket containing each row. Bucket numbers start at 1.

Bucket sizes differ by at most one row. When the rows cannot be divided evenly, the first buckets receive an extra row. Tied ordering values can fall in different buckets.

**Syntax**

```text
ntile(buckets) OVER ([PARTITION BY expression, ...] ORDER BY expression, ...)
```

**Arguments**

* `buckets` — The requested bucket count. It is evaluated once and converted to an integer. A converted count less than 1 raises a SQL error.

**Returned value**
An `INTEGER` bucket number. Each partition is divided independently. If the bucket count exceeds the row count, each occupied bucket contains one row and the remaining buckets are empty. A frame clause does not change the allocation.

**Example**
**Splitting accounts into two groups**

Five accounts are split into buckets of three and two rows:

```sql
CREATE TABLE accounts (name TEXT, revenue INTEGER);
INSERT INTO accounts VALUES ('Ada', 100), ('Grace', 90), ('Linus', 80), ('Sam', 70), ('Terry', 60);
```

```sql
SELECT name, revenue,
       ntile(2) OVER (ORDER BY revenue DESC, name) AS bucket
FROM accounts
ORDER BY revenue DESC, name
FORMAT csv;
```

```text
"Ada",100,1
"Grace",90,1
"Linus",80,1
"Sam",70,2
"Terry",60,2
```

See [`percent_rank`](https://coordinatordb.com/docs/reference/functions/window-functions/percent-rank) for relative ranks and [`cume_dist`](https://coordinatordb.com/docs/reference/functions/window-functions/cume-dist) for cumulative fractions that keep peers together.