Order by clause

Syntax

    orderby-clause: 'order' 'by' order-field-list
    order-field-list: order-field
    order-field: fieldname ('desc | 'descending')?

Functionally

The order by clause takes a list-of-node and sorts it's children predicated by the ordering list. The result is the same collection (list-of-node) in a different order.

    list-of-node -> (ordered) list-of-node

Multiple values

When comparing values, the ordering may encounter a row with multiple nodes with the same name. The order by clause assumes a table structure and may expect only one value. If multiple nodes are encountered Only the first encountered node has to be compared. It's up to to the algorithm which one that is.

Nested values

If one of the nodes is a nested structure, it SHOULD be ignored in the ordering.