What does ORDER BY 2 sort on?

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Accepted Answer

An integer in ORDER BY refers to the position of the column in the SELECT list - 1 is the first column, 2 is the second, and so on. ORDER BY 2 DESC is equivalent to ORDER BY salary DESC here. This syntax is valid but discouraged because adding or reordering SELECT columns silently changes what you sort by. Prefer referencing the column by name for clarity.