LEAD()

Signature

LEAD ( scalar_expression [ , offset ] [ , default ] ) [ IGNORE NULLS | RESPECT NULLS ]
    OVER ( [ partition_by_clause ] order_by_clause )

Parameters

• scalar_expression — The value to be returned based on the specified offset. It's an expression of any type that returns a single (scalar) value. *scalar_expression* can't be an analytic function.
• offset — The number of rows forward from the current row from which to obtain a value. If not specified, the default is 1. *offset* can be a column, subquery, or other expression that evaluates to a positive integer or can be implicitly converted to bigint. *offset* can't be a negative value or an analytic function.
• default — The value to return when *offset* is beyond the scope of the partition. If a default value isn't specified, `NULL` is returned. *default* can be a column, subquery, or other expression, but it can't be an analytic function. *default* must be type-compatible with *scalar_expression*.

Examples

SELECT product, amount, LEAD(amount) OVER (ORDER BY id) AS next_amount FROM dbo.orders;

product                                  amount       next_amount
---------------------------------------- ------------ ------------
keyboard                                        49.50       219.00
monitor                                        219.00        99.00
keyboard                                        99.00        27.75
mouse                                           27.75       438.00
monitor                                        438.00        15.00
cable                                           15.00         NULL

Run against SQL Server 16.0.4265.3 on 2026-09-13. This is the output we got, not the documentation’s.

Available on

• SQL Server 2017 and later
• Azure SQL Database
• Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Azure Synapse Analytics
• Analytics Platform System (PDW)
• Microsoft Fabric warehouse
• Fabric SQL database