>>>>>>Hi all,
>>> order by field3, field1, field2The real problem is to prevent "group by" doing implicit "order by" on sequential (mean each group is contiguous) but not sorted data.
>>>Cetin
>>
>>In the following case as well?
>>
>>...
>>order by fld1, fld2, fld3, fld4
>>group by fld1, fld2, fld3
>>...
>Sure since they're different, it's type of override too.
>Cetin

Ok, just so that I understand. The reason that the above was not working for Perry was because originally he had group by fld1, fld2, fld3 but his order by clause was not included and his order by clause needed to be fld1, fld2, fld3, fld4. Being different meant that it needed to be included.

But there was another post that said the order by was the last thing to occur so therefore it should have no effect. It only orders the resultant set. Is that true?