query question

[Rik Moed]

Hi,

I have a question about a query which I want to share with you. Maybe
someone knows how this strange behavior occurs.

Here is what I do:

SELECT top 1 actstage FROM v_OpportunityFa se WHERE oppId = 247

This produces the result 4, which in my case is correct.

And now the following query:

SELECT ISNULL((SELECT top 1 actstage FROM v_OpportunityFa se WHERE
oppId = 247), 7)

This query produces the result 5, this is very unexpected.

Does someone know why these two queries do not produce the same
result?

Thanks,
Rik Moed

[John Bell]

Hi

TOP does not really make any sense unless you have the results ordered! SQL
Server does not guarantee order unless and ORDER BY clause is included. See
Books online: "ORDER BY clause, compatibility issues"
John
"Rik Moed" <ri******@capge mini.com> wrote in message
news:d5******** *************** ***@posting.goo gle.com...

Hi,

I have a question about a query which I want to share with you. Maybe
someone knows how this strange behavior occurs.

Here is what I do:

SELECT top 1 actstage FROM v_OpportunityFa se WHERE oppId = 247

This produces the result 4, which in my case is correct.

And now the following query:

SELECT ISNULL((SELECT top 1 actstage FROM v_OpportunityFa se WHERE
oppId = 247), 7)

This query produces the result 5, this is very unexpected.

Does someone know why these two queries do not produce the same
result?

Thanks,
Rik Moed

[Zach Wells]

Queries do not returned ordered results unless you explicitly request it
by using an ORDER BY clause.

Zach

Rik Moed wrote:

Hi,

I have a question about a query which I want to share with you. Maybe
someone knows how this strange behavior occurs.

Here is what I do:

SELECT top 1 actstage FROM v_OpportunityFa se WHERE oppId = 247

This produces the result 4, which in my case is correct.

And now the following query:

SELECT ISNULL((SELECT top 1 actstage FROM v_OpportunityFa se WHERE
oppId = 247), 7)

This query produces the result 5, this is very unexpected.

Does someone know why these two queries do not produce the same
result?

Thanks,
Rik Moed

[Moed]

> Queries do not returned ordered results unless you explicitly request it

by using an ORDER BY clause.
Ok,
But the results are ordered in the view v_OpportunityFa se.

Rik

Zach

Rik Moed wrote:

Hi,

I have a question about a query which I want to share with you. Maybe
someone knows how this strange behavior occurs.

Here is what I do:

SELECT top 1 actstage FROM v_OpportunityFa se WHERE oppId = 247

This produces the result 4, which in my case is correct.

And now the following query:

SELECT ISNULL((SELECT top 1 actstage FROM v_OpportunityFa se WHERE
oppId = 247), 7)

This query produces the result 5, this is very unexpected.

Does someone know why these two queries do not produce the same
result?

Thanks,
Rik Moed

[Erland Sommarskog]

Moed (ri*****@wanado o.nl) writes:

But the results are ordered in the view v_OpportunityFa se.

They are not. The view may include an ORDER BY clause, and the view
may even be an indexed and thus materialized view. But by definition,
data is not stored in order in a relational database, but data is
stored as unordered sets. Physically there may be an order, but
conceptually there is not. The only way to get data in a certain
order from the database, is to use an ORDER BY clause.
--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, es****@sommarsk og.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinf...2000/books.asp