SQL & PL/SQL

Environment:

Oracle 11.2.0.3 EE on Solaris 10.5

I have a stream of numbers (say 1000), I need to calculate the 99th percentile of the distribution of that stream such that when a new number 'n' is introduced I can tell if the new number is above the 99th percentile of the distribution of my stream.

I don't have a good feel for the nature of the distribution if that's important.

I am NOT, I repeat NOT a statistician! :-)

I have read the docs on the different functions available, ntile, percent_rank, percentile_cont, percentile_disc, etc. I have also read many articles referenced via Google.

The examples do not do exactly what I'm attempting and I was unable to get the result I need by trial and error (mostly!).

Any suggestions are most welcome!!!

If you need additional information I'll try to supply what I know.

-gary