• In the end, the order the data is loaded into a table is usually irrelevant unless a clustered index already exists on the table and you want to take advantage of the fact that the source data is already in the same order as the clustered index... maybe thats what you're getting at? Lots more info here:

    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa196737(v=SQL.80).aspx

    The only thing I need to add (and this may be also be irrelevant to the original question) is that you should never rely on rows returning in a specific order without an order by. The rows are returned in the order that the query plan decides to return them, and for now they do exactly as Steve says but who knows what magnificent enhancements will be done to SQL Server in future that might cause the query plan to be rearranged in some way. Adding an order by guarantees the last step of the query plan orders the data.