fn:unordered - XPath XQuery Reference

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XPath/XQuery unordered function

Summary

Returns the items of $sourceSeq in an implementation-dependent order.

Signature

fn:unordered(

$sourceSeq as item()*

) as item()*

Properties

This function is nondeterministic-wrt-ordering, context-independent, and focus-independent.

Rules

The function returns the items of $sourceSeq in an implementation-dependent order.

The expression fn:unordered((1, 2, 3, 4, 5)) returns (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Query optimizers may be able to do a better job if the order of the output sequence is not specified. For example, when retrieving prices from a purchase order, if an index exists on prices, it may be more efficient to return the prices in index order rather than in document order.