SQL, Auxiliary table of numbers

--===== Test for 1000000 rows ==================================
GO
--===== Traditional RECURSIVE CTE method
   WITH Tally (N) AS
        (
         SELECT 1 UNION ALL
         SELECT 1 + N FROM Tally WHERE N < 1000000
        )
 SELECT N
   INTO #Tally1
   FROM Tally
 OPTION (MAXRECURSION 0);
GO
--===== Traditional WHILE LOOP method
 CREATE TABLE #Tally2 (N INT);
    SET NOCOUNT ON;
DECLARE @Index INT;
    SET @Index = 1;
  WHILE @Index <= 1000000
  BEGIN
         INSERT #Tally2 (N)
         VALUES (@Index);
            SET @Index = @Index + 1;
    END;
GO
--===== Traditional CROSS JOIN table method
 SELECT TOP (1000000)
        ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT 1)) AS N
   INTO #Tally3
   FROM Master.sys.All_Columns ac1
  CROSS JOIN Master.sys.ALL_Columns ac2;
GO
--===== Itzik's CROSS JOINED CTE method
   WITH E00(N) AS (SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1),
        E02(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E00 a, E00 b),
        E04(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E02 a, E02 b),
        E08(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E04 a, E04 b),
        E16(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E08 a, E08 b),
        E32(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E16 a, E16 b),
   cteTally(N) AS (SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY N) FROM E32)
 SELECT N
   INTO #Tally4
   FROM cteTally
  WHERE N <= 1000000;
GO
--===== Housekeeping
   DROP TABLE #Tally1, #Tally2, #Tally3, #Tally4;
GO

SPID TextData                                 Dur(ms) CPU   Reads   Writes
---- ---------------------------------------- ------- ----- ------- ------
  51 --===== Test for 100 rows ==============       8     0       0      0
  51 --===== Traditional RECURSIVE CTE method      16     0     868      0
  51 --===== Traditional WHILE LOOP method CR      73    16     175      2
  51 --===== Traditional CROSS JOIN table met      11     0      80      0
  51 --===== Itzik's CROSS JOINED CTE method        6     0      63      0
  51 --===== Housekeeping   DROP TABLE #Tally      35    31     401      0

  51 --===== Test for 1000 rows =============       0     0       0      0
  51 --===== Traditional RECURSIVE CTE method      47    47    8074      0
  51 --===== Traditional WHILE LOOP method CR      80    78    1085      0
  51 --===== Traditional CROSS JOIN table met       5     0      98      0
  51 --===== Itzik's CROSS JOINED CTE method        2     0      83      0
  51 --===== Housekeeping   DROP TABLE #Tally       6    15     426      0

  51 --===== Test for 10000 rows ============       0     0       0      0
  51 --===== Traditional RECURSIVE CTE method     434   344   80230     10
  51 --===== Traditional WHILE LOOP method CR     671   563   10240      9
  51 --===== Traditional CROSS JOIN table met      25    31     302     15
  51 --===== Itzik's CROSS JOINED CTE method       24     0     192     15
  51 --===== Housekeeping   DROP TABLE #Tally       7    15     531      0

  51 --===== Test for 100000 rows ===========       0     0       0      0
  51 --===== Traditional RECURSIVE CTE method    4143  3813  800260    154
  51 --===== Traditional WHILE LOOP method CR    5820  5547  101380    161
  51 --===== Traditional CROSS JOIN table met     160   140     479    211
  51 --===== Itzik's CROSS JOINED CTE method      153   141     276    204
  51 --===== Housekeeping   DROP TABLE #Tally      10    15     761      0

  51 --===== Test for 1000000 rows ==========       0     0       0      0
  51 --===== Traditional RECURSIVE CTE method   41349 37437 8001048   1601
  51 --===== Traditional WHILE LOOP method CR   59138 56141 1012785   1682
  51 --===== Traditional CROSS JOIN table met    1224  1219    2429   2101
  51 --===== Itzik's CROSS JOINED CTE method     1448  1328    1217   2095
  51 --===== Housekeeping   DROP TABLE #Tally       8     0     415      0

WITH Nbrs ( n ) AS (
    SELECT 1 UNION ALL
    SELECT 1 + n FROM Nbrs WHERE n < 500 )
SELECT n FROM Nbrs
OPTION ( MAXRECURSION 500 )

WITH
    E00 (N) AS (
        SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
        SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 ),
    E01 (N) AS (SELECT a.N FROM E00 a CROSS JOIN E00 b),
    E02 (N) AS (SELECT a.N FROM E01 a CROSS JOIN E01 b ),
    E03 (N) AS (SELECT a.N FROM E02 a CROSS JOIN E02 b
        LIMIT 11000  -- end record  11,000 good for 30 yrs dates
    ), -- max is 100,000,000, starts slowing e.g. 1 million 1.5 secs, 2 mil 2.5 secs, 3 mill 4 secs
    Tally (N) as (SELECT row_number() OVER (ORDER BY a.N) FROM E03 a)

SELECT N
FROM Tally

CREATE VIEW dbo.Numbers
WITH SCHEMABINDING
AS
    WITH Int1(z) AS (SELECT 0 UNION ALL SELECT 0)
    , Int2(z) AS (SELECT 0 FROM Int1 a CROSS JOIN Int1 b)
    , Int4(z) AS (SELECT 0 FROM Int2 a CROSS JOIN Int2 b)
    , Int8(z) AS (SELECT 0 FROM Int4 a CROSS JOIN Int4 b)
    , Int16(z) AS (SELECT 0 FROM Int8 a CROSS JOIN Int8 b)
    , Int32(z) AS (SELECT TOP 2147483647 0 FROM Int16 a CROSS JOIN Int16 b)
    SELECT ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY z) AS n
    FROM Int32
GO