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dmilam
Posting Yak Master
184 Posts |
 Posted - 11/27/2012 : 15:43:40
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When SELECT is called, say in
SELECT PersonID
FROM dbo.Persons
, the database engine orders the display of the resulting data based on how the pages are currently allocated, if I'm using the correct terms?
It doesn't appear to be (pseudo)random since each time I run the query above, it returns the IDs in a certain order, but not in ascending numeric order as I might expect with an index.
For example, these five IDs currently are at the top, rows 1 - 5
66555
68181
68422
69194
65956
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Lamprey
Flowing Fount of Yak Knowledge
3833 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2012 : 15:51:29
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quote:
Originally posted by dmilam
When SELECT is called, <snip>, the database engine orders the display of the resulting data based on how the pages are currently allocated, if I'm using the correct terms?
No, that is just a coincidence. SQL makes no guarantee about the order of the result set unless and ORDER BY clause is used.
EDIT: Missing word. |
Edited by - Lamprey on 11/27/2012 15:55:13 |
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dmilam
Posting Yak Master
184 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2012 : 16:50:06
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| OK, thanks, then it can be said to be pseudo-random, I suppose. Trying to explain to others why this is so, but I don't know enough about the internals of the database engine to point to any documentation. |
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jimf
Flowing Fount of Yak Knowledge
USA
2868 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2012 : 17:28:01
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Think of this way. Our concept of order is 1,2,3,4,5, etc. SQL's is "this is the first one I got, this the second one I got, etc.". If you run the same query many times in a row, SQL server says "I just got that, so here it is again." so you get the same order. After many insert/updates to the table, you may get a different result in your first 5 records. SO the only to guarantee our concept of order is to tell SQL explicitly how we want things ordered
Jim
Everyday I learn something that somebody else already knew |
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Lamprey
Flowing Fount of Yak Knowledge
3833 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2012 : 17:32:31
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| Yeah, there are a bunch of ways that can cause SQL to return rows out of clustered order. I can think of about 5 or so off the top of my head and I'm sure there are many more. You might try doing a search if you wanted more detail to help with documenting the deifferent reasons. |
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dmilam
Posting Yak Master
184 Posts |
Posted - 11/27/2012 : 19:06:51
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| OK, thanks all |
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Topic |
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SELECT and the order of a result set
