Because both expressions evaluate to 1 and cause the output to be sorted by the first column?  Oracle seems to ignore the values after the decimal point.
 
SQL> select a, c from x
  2  where rownum < 10
  3  order by 1.7;
 
         A C
---------- -
      4861 Y
      4862 N
      4863 Y
      4864 N
      4865 Y
      4866 N
      4867 Y
      4868 N
      4869 Y
 
9 rows selected.
 
SQL> select a, c from x
  2  where rownum < 10
  3  order by 2.7;
 
         A C
---------- -
      4862 N
      4864 N
      4868 N
      4866 N
      4861 Y
      4869 Y
      4867 Y
      4865 Y
      4863 Y
 
9 rows selected.
 
 
Gudmundur
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Saturday, December 27, 2003 4:14 PM
Subject: order by

> Hello list,
> Can someone please explain to me why the following order by clauses are
> valid and yield the same results :
>
> select empno, deptno from emp
> order by sqrt (1) ;
>
> and
>
> select empno, deptno from emp
> order by sqrt ( 3.14234 ) ;
>
> The docs say that in the order by clause you could specify only (a) column
> names or (b) positional parameters or (c) expressions involving the columns
>
>
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ:
http://www.orafaq.net
> --
> Author: <
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>   INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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