MariaDB 10.2 has introduced some Window Functions for analytical queries.
See also: Window Functions, Window Functions, Window function and Rows and Range, Preceding and Following
Function ROW_NUMBER()
Simulate a row number (sequence) top 3
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY NULL ORDER BY category_id) AS num
, category.category_id
FROM category
LIMIT 3
;
or
SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY category_id) AS num
, category.category_id
FROM category
LIMIT 3
;
+-----+-------------+
| num | …
