Order of Data Retrieval Differs After Upgrading From 9i to a Higher Version (Doc ID 456707.1)

Last updated on SEPTEMBER 15, 2016

Applies to:

Oracle Database - Enterprise Edition - Version 10.1.0.2 and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.

Symptoms

SCOPE & APPLICATION

Customers, Support

SQL output and the order of data

It is not uncommon for SQL in 10g or later, using the same execution plan as previously in 9i, to return the data in a different order for columns outside of the ORDER BY clause.

For example, the following output is from SQL with an ORDER BY NAME clause:

NAME   SURNAME
-----  -------
George Bush
Tony   Blair
Tony   Book


It may well change its order to

NAME   SURNAME
-----  -------
George Bush
Tony   Book
Tony   Blair


After an upgrade, this can cause issues with customers and applications which were reliant on the fixed order of SURNAME although it was not explicitly ordered.

Changes

Upgrade from 9.x to a higher version

Cause

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