Different order in the results

Question

I have a problem with order consistency in the data set on the screen vs. the sequence of records being selected one by one behind the screen.
Say, in the first form I select certain "where clause" and several "order by". I pass parameters to the second form, compile query in runtime and start bringing records into the form for update, one by one. That's when the original first screen order is being messed up.
Say, we have a group of records sorted by type, received_date. The set on the screen (user can only 2,3 and 4th columns) and in SQL*Plus would display:
Rownum     Unique # Type     Date
11     100 E     10/10/2005
13     103 E     10/10/2005
12     102 E     10/10/2005
14     104 E     10/10/2005
15     105 E     10/10/2005
Records retrieved by the second screen via cursor, one by one, would appear in the following order:
Rownum     Unique # Type     Date
11     100 E     10/10/2005
12     102 E     10/10/2005
13     103 E     10/10/2005
14     104 E     10/10/2005
15     105 E     10/10/2005
Basically, Oracle adds rownum as a last Order by to the customized Order By. Has anyone run into the similar problem and what did you do to fix it?

Answer 1

And Rownum is an internal number that is applied AFTER the rows are sorted, so no matter how you order your records, Rownum will always start with 1.
Does my result have something to do with subquery?
SELECT rownum, unique#, report_type, received_date
FROM table x
WHERE condition blah-blah-blah
AND unique# IN (subquery from table y)
ORDER BY report_type ASC, received_date DESC
My query above gives the result as follows:
rownum unique# report_type received_date
1     4630093     E     4/8/2005
2     4630095     E     4/8/2005
3     4630096     E     4/8/2005
11     4629916     E     4/8/2005
4     4630099     E     4/8/2005
62     4631257     E     4/8/2005
64     4631286     E     4/8/2005
66     4631288     E     4/8/2005
68     4631290     E     4/8/2005
218     4630693     E     4/8/2005
196     4630163     E     4/8/2005
195     4630599     E     4/8/2005
194     4630580     E     4/8/2005
193     4631309     E     4/8/2005
192     4631308     E     4/8/2005
191     4631307     E     4/8/2005
167     4630012     E     4/8/2005
166     4630011     E     4/8/2005
165     4629997     E     4/8/2005
164     4629996     E     4/8/2005
163     4629989     E     4/8/2005
162     4630574     E     4/8/2005
67     4631289     E     4/8/2005
65     4631287     E     4/8/2005
63     4631259     E     4/8/2005
And then when retrieving one by one sorts by rownum (or unique #)