by Joseph Gilgen.
I have adapted the get_grading_userid_list() function from /mod/assign/locallib.php to retrieve the rownum:
function get_rownum($mod_instance,$userid){
global $COURSE;
$cm = get_coursemodule_from_instance('assign',$mod_instance,false,MUST_EXIST);
$mod_context = context_module::instance($cm->id);
$assign = new assign($mod_context,$cm,$COURSE);
$filter = get_user_preferences('assign_filter', '');
$table = new assign_grading_table($assign, 0, $filter, 0, false);
$useridlist = $table->get_column_data('userid');
$rownum = array_search($userid, $useridlist);
return $rownum;
}
You will just need to require both /mod/assign/locallib.php and /mod/assign/gradingtable.php