Insert values for whole column in SQL Server

Question

Is there any way to insert different values for specific column, not whole row in SQL Server. Classic UPDATE SET would set all to same value.

For example I want to set some int values to Ranking column for each of 3 rows, without dropping them and doing complete new insert into.

Answer 1

Use row_number()

  update a set ranking =rn from tablename a join 
    (select id,name, row_number() over(order by id) as rn
        from tablename) b on a.id=b.id

Answer 2

do update

update tabale 
  set ranking= your_va

   with cte as
   (
    select * ,row_number() over(order by id) rn
   ) update cte set ranking=rn where id<=3

Answer 3

What value do you want to set ranking to?

Just any value:

update mytable set ranking = id;

Certain values:

update mytable set ranking =
  case name 
    when 'Positive' then 1
    when 'Neutral'  then 2
    when 'Negative' then 3
                    else 4
  end;