Select Top Alters Order

If i have two identical queries, with exception of top criteria

Select top 1 * from photos

Select top 8 * from photos

why does altering the top critieria alter the order of the returned
results?

re: Select Top Alters Order

<jw56578@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1120758806.014642.142300@z14g2000cwz.googlegr oups.com...[color=blue]
> If i have two identical queries, with exception of top criteria
>
> Select top 1 * from photos
>
> Select top 8 * from photos
>
> why does altering the top critieria alter the order of the returned
> results?
>[/color]

The only way to get data in a certain order is to use ORDER BY - rows in
tables have no order, so you need to tell MSSQL what order you want. See
SELECT in Books Online, which notes that TOP without ORDER BY returns
"arbitrary" rows.

Simon