Question

Update:
I asked the question because the result does not look like how it is executed… which is explained here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186243(v=sql.105).aspx

Well I have another question…
If I do not need the same parents and the Level, is it possible to return one parent only once using the CTE (not the select after it) or maybe some other sql?

===========================
Desired result is like:

......
    54          4           
    **** the above is anchor member, the numbers are correct  
    4           1          
    1           0           
    2           1           
    36          35          
    35          8           
    8           1           
    54          12          
    12          1           
    11          1           
    3           1           

===========================

I am using a recursive query to find out all the parents from a Hierarchy table, for items from Items table; I thought the result should be by Level, but it is not… I know I can sort it using order by, I just think the output itself should be ordered by Level because the Recursive Memeber is run by Level, right?

            WITH Result(ItemID, ParentID, Level)
            AS
            (
                --get the anchor member from tbItems
                SELECT itemID, itemParentID, 0 AS Level
                FROM   tbItems  WHERE
                    approved = 0 
                UNION ALL
                --recursive member from tbHierarchy
                SELECT h.hierarchyItemID, h.parentItemID, Level + 1
                FROM tbHierarchy AS h
                INNER JOIN
                    Result AS r
                        ON
                        h.hierarchyItemID = r.ParentID          

            )
            SELECT *
            FROM Result

the Result is:

    ItemID      ParentID    Level
    ----------- ----------- -----------
    7           3           0
    11          2           0
    18          11          0
    19          11          0
    21          54          0
    31          2           0
    33          36          0
    34          36          0
    35          36          0
    36          36          0
    38          2           0
    39          2           0
    40          2           0
    54          4           0
    **** the above is anchor member, the numbers are correct  
    4           1           1
    1           0           2
    2           1           1
    1           0           2
    2           1           1
    1           0           2
    2           1           1
    1           0           2
    36          35          1
    35          8           2
    8           1           3
    1           0           4
    36          35          1
    35          8           2
    8           1           3
    1           0           4
    36          35          1
    35          8           2
    8           1           3
    1           0           4
    36          35          1
    35          8           2
    8           1           3
    1           0           4
    2           1           1
    1           0           2
    54          12          1
    12          1           2
    1           0           3
    11          1           1
    1           0           2
    11          1           1
    1           0           2
    2           1           1
    1           0           2
    3           1           1
    1           0           2

Answer 1

The data in a database are not ordered. If you do not put an order by, you cannot be sure of the order of the output.

Never think the database will do things the way you think, 90% of the time, it’s wrong. The objective of database is to understand your query and find the fastest way to find the solution, and it’s often not the way you think.

Depending of your editor, but sometimes you can ask it to explain the plan used to find the solution, it might give you some explanation of how the result is obtained.