This page is a quick reference checkpoint for NTILE in Databricks SQL: behavior, syntax rules, edge cases, and a minimal example; plus the official vendor documentation.
NTILE divides the rows into a specified number of buckets and assigns each row a bucket number.
n must be a positive integer; assigns each row to one of n buckets of nearly equal size
If this behavior feels unintuitive, the tutorial below explains the underlying pattern step-by-step.
NTILE(n) OVER ( [PARTITION BY ...] ORDER BY ... )
SELECT NTILE(4) OVER (ORDER BY salary) AS salary_quartile, employee_id, salary FROM employees
If you came here to confirm syntax, you’re done. If you came here to get better at window functions, choose your next step.
NTILE is part of a bigger window-function pattern. If you want the “why”, start here: Percentile Distribution
Reading docs is useful. Writing the query correctly under pressure is the skill.
For the authoritative spec, use the vendor docs. This page is the fast “sanity check”.
View Databricks SQL Documentation →Looking for more functions across all SQL dialects? Visit the full SQL Dialects & Window Functions Documentation.