On Tue, Feb 03, 2009 at 08:37:10AM -0500, Brad Stiles scratched on the wall:
> >> For my own edification, why the "order by 1" clause?
> >
> > To sort them in ascending order of table name, which might make
> > old-fashioned capers like visual scrutiny a little easier.
>
> OK then, why would one not use the column name?
It does.
The given statement (with a bit of editing) was:
SELECT 'drop table ' || name || ';'
FROM sqlite_master
WHERE type = 'table'
AND name GLOB 'X[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]'
ORDER BY 1;
You'll notice there are no commas between the SELECT and FROM... the
SELECT statement only produces one column. That column consists of a
series of strings in the format:
'drop table <name>;'
Since each string starts with the exact same prefix ('drop table ')
the end result is that it will sort by table name. And, because of
the GLOB format, it will sort by the numeric value of the table name.
-j
--
Jay A. Kreibich < J A Y @ K R E I B I.C H >
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have
a protractor." "I'll go home and see if I can scrounge up a ruler
and a piece of string." --from Anathem by Neal Stephenson
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