Asc &Desc

Question

Hi! all
i would appreciate if any one would clear me the concept of the
order by clause using the ASC and DESC
i have a table which has the few columns
including the date the column as one of them
Most of the Queires i deal with need to
return the most recent records
( as each record entered today as date field entered ..today's date..)
So...
select * from
<table_name>
where rownnum <=10 **need to only first 10 records**
order by datefiled desc
hoping that i would get most recent at the top...
but it falied...
i tried with
**Order by ASC*** it also returned same
old ten records(1998) but not new(2000)
Now i am confused with the concept of DESC/ASC
does it work with DATE field...
if not what would be best way to query the most recent records.(DATE FIELD)
Experts please clarify my question ASAP
Best Rgds
null

Answer 1

Hello Some,
This type of subquery was first available in 7.3.4 (I think). You can find more about it in:
Oracle8i SQL Reference
Release 8.1.5
Chapter 5 Expressions, Conditions, and Queries
This type of subquery can be used instead of creating a view. You can also use it to bypass some limitations. A nice example is the CONNECT BY clause. When you use this, you have limitations. When you put the part with the CONNECT BY clause in such a subquery, you are able to do a lot more in this SQL-statement than otherwise.
SELECT TRE.TREELEVEL, TRE.PARENTID, TRE.NODEID,
DOC.URL, DOC.DESCRIPTION,
NVL(IMG.CLOSEDIMAGE, nvl(IMG.OPENIMAGE, 'folder')) CLOSEDIMAGE,
NVL(IMG.OPENIMAGE, 'folder') OPENIMAGE
FROM (select level TREELEVEL, nod.documentid, nod.nodeid, nod.nodeseq, nod.parentid
from web.nodes nod
start with nod.nodeid=&TreeRoot
connect by prior nod.nodeid=nod.parentid) TRE,
WEB.DOCUMENTS DOC, WEB.IMAGES IMG
WHERE TRE.DOCUMENTID=DOC.DOCUMENTID(+)
AND DOC.IMAGEID =IMG.IMAGEID(+)
ORDER BY DOC.DESCRIPTION
null