>>>And remember that "the first expression it processes" might be completely random to you. So it might run fine in testing environment and on site it's a complete desaster.
>>>
>>>(^_^)
>>
>>One of the first things you learn in Fox's SQL is that there is no guarantee that records retrieved will come in any particular order. With a single table filtering cursor it may be, most of the time, the recno() order... but you can't rely on that. Anything more complicated than that, you just don't know.
>>
>>Relying on records being read in any order is just as a stable house of cards as is relying on instantiation order of objects. May change with the wind.
>
>Not quite true... the particular order is ALWAYS the order specified by the execution plan. If you don't specify an ORDER, it'll set one for you :) But, we can take consolation that all the SQL engines I know work the same way < g >

Not quite shure if I read you right. But by definition SQL works and returns in sets rather then in lists / tables. So if you assume nothing on any particular order accept output order set by the ORDER BY clause you will not be wrong. (^_^)