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by cm2187 2145 days ago
I am still waiting for an apology for mathematics and base 10 numbers being written the wrong way round logically!

Same with SQL. I am giving SQL trainings this year, and I have to explain why the server will read your query in a completely different order than how you write it.

2 comments

I'm still waiting for an apology for base 10. We should be using base 12 or dozenal.
+1
Numbers are written correctly, most significant digit on the left. SQL is mostly correct according that logic, first `join` then `where` then `order by`. There are inconsistencies though.
You are used to see the most significant digit on the left, but really we have to right align a column of number in order for them to be readable, whereas everything else we read is left aligned. And you don't know what this significant number corresponds to (thousands, millions, billions?) until you have read all the other numbers (if you read left to right).

As for SQL, you write

SELECT TOP 10 ColName FROM TableName WHERE X = 10 ORDER BY ColName

and the server reads

FROM TableName WHERE X = 10 SELECT ColName ORDER BY ColName TOP 10

It is not "mostly" the right order.

And right to left assignment for mathematics or programming.