Sorting Data

As you learned in the last lesson, the following SQL statement returns a single column from a database table. But look at the output. The data appears to be displayed in no particular order at all.

SELECT prod_name
FROM Products;
prod_name
--------------------
Fish bean bag toy
Bird bean bag toy
Rabbit bean bag toy
8 inch teddy bear
12 inch teddy bear
18 inch teddy bear
Raggedy Ann
King doll
Queen doll

Actually, the retrieved data is not displayed in a mere random order. If unsorted, data will be displayed in the order in which it appears in the underlying tables. This could be the order in which the data was added to the tables initially. However, if data was subsequently updated or deleted, the order will be affected by how ...

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