Plz help me with select statment

[mirza21]

Hi friend i am new to sql and facing problem in writing select queries

Plz help me know how sql query gets data from server , i am unable to understand the flow of query , i could not make out which part of query is executed first.

chk this case:-

select top 3 with ties ProductName,UnitsOnOrder from Products order by UnitsOnOrder desc


1) As per me it executes left to right .First it select top 3 records from products table then order them and then arrange then in descending order

but results i am getting are different


so please help me logically understand how above select statement works

[rmiao]

Sql sorts table first then pick up top 3.

[mirza21]

thanks friends