How sorting works in an internal table in given case??

[ABAPer_1631]

Hello,

I know this would be basic question, but I need this to figure-out issue. I have an internal table lt_result with four fields (field1, field2, field3, field4). I have fetched data from an Infotype into this internal table. Now, I have N no.of records in lt_result. Among these, I have two records with same value in field2 where field4 is varied.

EG: Before SORT

field1	field2	field3	field4
12345	01.01.2013	01.01.2013	01.04.2012
12345	04.11.2020	04.11.2020	04.11.2020
12345	20.12.2022	20.12.2022	01.04.2012
12345	20.12.2022	20.12.2022	04.11.2020

I would like to sort with field1 ascending and field2 descending.

SORT lt_result BY <field1> ASCENDING <field2> DESCENDING.

In that case, what will happen if for the records in violet.

i) which record will come first either 01.04.2012 or 04.11.2020?

ii) usually how does sorting works for date comparison?

Thanks!!

[Sandra_Rossi]

Your question is answered by the ABAP documentation of the word STABLE of SORT. By default, it's unstable (random order for what is not explicit).