Sort Showplan Operator

The Sort operator sorts all incoming rows. The Argument column contains either a DISTINCT ORDER BY:() predicate if duplicates are removed by this operation, or an ORDER BY:() predicate with a comma-separated list of the columns being sorted. The columns are prefixed with the value ASC if the columns are sorted in ascending order, or the value DESC if the columns are sorted in descending order.

Sort is a logical and physical operator.

Graphical execution plan icon