SQLServerCentral Editorial

Who Built This Thing?

Do the people that build SQL Server really work with it? Steve Jones shares a short story from a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest. This editorial was originally published on May 20, 2008. It is being re-run as Steve is on vacation.

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Question of the Day

ORDER BY alias

There is a table tmp_tab: 

CREATE TABLE tmp_tab (
id int,
val int
);
INSERT INTO tmp_tab VALUES
(1, 1),
(2, NULL),
(3, 3),
(4, 4),
(5, 5);
You want to order the rows ids by the following expression: 
    ISNULL(val, id) + 1
Which of the following queries produces the expected ordering and why? (Select all correct)

See possible answers