Dense_Rank() is ordering by the partition column and I dont want it to!

Hi all,

I have been stuck on a particular use of the DENSE_RANK() function.

I am trying to partition by a column but order by another column, but when I try to partition by a column SQL is ordering by the column i specified in the partition - very annoying! So here is my dataset:

WITH dataSet AS (    

SELECT 'Apple' AS Fruit, CAST('20130101' AS DATE) AS EatenDate 
UNION ALL    
SELECT 'Apple', '20130102'
UNION ALL    
SELECT 'Pear', '20130102'
UNION ALL    
SELECT 'Pear', '20130103'
UNION ALL    
SELECT 'Apple', '20130104'
UNION ALL    
SELECT 'Apple', '20130105'
UNION ALL    
SELECT 'Pear', '20130106'
UNION ALL    
SELECT 'Apple', '20130107') 
SELECT *,DENSE_RANK() OVER(PARTITION BY FRUIT ORDER BY EATENDATE) AS Ranking 
FROM DataSet

Here are the results

Fruit     EatenDate     Ranking

Apple    2013-01-01    1

Apple    2013-01-02    2

Apple    2013-01-04    3

Apple    2013-01-05    4

Apple    2013-01-07    5

Pear     2013-01-02    1

Pear     2013-01-03    2

Pear     2013-01-06    3

but what i'm after is:

Fruit        EatenDate      Ranking

Apple      2013-01-01    1

Apple      2013-01-02    1

Pear        2013-01-02    2

Pear        2013-01-03    2

Apple       2013-01-04    3

Apple       2013-01-05    3

Pear        2013-01-06    4

Apple       2013-01-07    5

My workaround is (I know, its very long winded):

DECLARE @FruitPrev varchar(10) = 'Apple', @Row_Number_Inc AS INT = 1;

DECLARE @TableVar TABLE( Fruit VARCHAR(10) null, EatenDate DATE null, Ranking INT null)

DECLARE @vFruit VARCHAR(10), @vEatenDate DATE

DECLARE Fruity CURSOR FOR

SELECT 'Apple' AS Fruit, CAST('20130101' AS DATE) AS EatenDate UNION ALL

SELECT 'Apple', '20130102' UNION ALL

SELECT 'Pear', '20130102' UNION ALL

SELECT 'Pear', '20130103' UNION ALL

SELECT 'Apple', '20130104' UNION ALL

SELECT 'Apple', '20130105' UNION ALL

SELECT 'Pear', '20130106' UNION ALL

SELECT 'Apple', '20130107';

OPEN Fruity

FETCH NEXT FROM Fruity INTO @vFruit, @vEatenDate

WHILE (@@FETCH_STATUS <> -1)

    BEGIN

        IF @vFruit = @FruitPrev

        BEGIN

            INSERT INTO @TableVar VALUES(@vFruit, @vEatenDate, @Row_Number_Inc);

            SET @FruitPrev = @vFruit;

        END

    ELSE

    BEGIN

        SET @Row_Number_Inc += 1;

        INSERT INTO @TableVar VALUES(@vFruit, @vEatenDate, @Row_Number_Inc);

        SET @FruitPrev = @vFruit;

    END

FETCH NEXT FROM Fruity INTO @vFruit, @vEatenDateENDCLOSE Fruity

DEALLOCATE Fruity

SELECT * FROM @TableVar

Is there an easier way to do this using one of the ranking functions?

Your help would be appreciated especially if it can be applied to my example above.

Shaheen Karatela