Question

I read the documentation @ http://www.sqlite.org/lang_select.html, but could not understand if LIMIT works before or after the ORDER BY clause.

So if my SQL is:

SELECT date(event_time) as ct, jobName 
FROM events
WHERE jobName = "MY_TEST_JOB"
ORDER BY event_time DESC
LIMIT 10;

Will the result set include the most recent 10 events, or will the limit apply before the sorting operation?

Answer 1

LIMIT is applied after the ORDER BY, so you will get the first 10 records sorted by event_time (in ascending order, so the 10 “oldest” events).

If you’re trying to get the 10 newest events, you would just change your ORDER BY to:

ORDER BY event_time DESC