Row Number in SQL Database

[Coldman]

hi there

I am having some query regarding sql.
My Question is that How do I provide a distinct unique number to each field returned. I also want to prefer to do it in sql and not to create an index as the table as I don't have sole control of the table. In the below desired output description this would be RowIndex.

SQL 2000
Statement to add rowindex to:
select distinct(Description) as LawSpecialty from lawspecialty

Please help me in this sql qeury

[Praetor]

select * from (

SELECT a.Description,
Id = ( SELECT COUNT(1) FROM (SELECT DISTINCT(Description) FROM LawSpecialty ) b WHERE a.Description > b.Description ) +1
FROM (SELECT DISTINCT(Description) FROM LawSpecialty ) A
) C
where id in (1,2,3)

[Katty]

ELECT ROW_NUMBER()
OVER (ORDER BY EmployeeName) AS Row,
EmployeeId, EmployeeName, Salary
FROM Employees

which will provide you as output:

Row EmployeeId EmployeeName Salary
-------------------------------------------
1 1002 Alden 4000
2 2343 Lawson 4500
3 2004 Barbra 4800
4 1105 Marsden 4500
5 3116 Mac 5000