As your query contains order by on host_id, so it will be sorted only based on host_id. Since in your case host_id is same for both rows, the order in which host_name will be selected will be absolutely random. If you want query to returns rows sorted on host_name also, then you should add host_name in order by clause as below:
Select host_id, host_name from host_view order by host_id, host_name; So in this case first it will be sort based on host_id and then on host_name. From: pgsql-general-ow...@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-general-ow...@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Quang Thoi Sent: 31 May 2014 05:44 To: pgsql-general@postgresql.org Subject: [GENERAL] How is sorting work? Any one knows how sorting works? I am using postgresql 9.3 and runs on Linux machines. I see different sorting order for the same set of return data. On linux machines, databases are configured the same. Database have encoding set to 'utf8' and locale='C' query: Select host_id, host_name from host_view order by host_id hos_id (character varying 128) host_name (character varying 255) - On one linux machine (locate in U.S) , the query returned following: host_id host_name ------------ ------------------ "00017486"; "lnx2.xx.yy.com" "00017486"; "lnx1.xx.yy.com" - On a different linux machine (locate in India), the query returned following: host_id host_name ------------ ------------------ "00017486"; "lnx1.xx.yy.com" "00017486"; "lnx2.xx.yy.com" Thanks, Quang.
