On Thu, 9 Jun 2011 08:59:36 -0400, Thomas Clarke
<thomas.p.clarke@...>
wrote:

>> Interestingly, if I use DISTINCT, I get an ordered list.
>>
>
> Because distinct needs to sort in order to work.

I highly suspect that is an implementation artefact and should not be taken
for granted. If it was implemented using the equivalent of a Java HashSet,
the output order would actually depend on the hash bucket the string was
stored in the HashSet.