Or there could just be a hint that says do it in source code order: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/queries/hints-transact-sql-query?view=sql-serve

Or there could just be a hint that says do it in source code order: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/queries/hints-transact-sql-query?view=sql-server-ver16#force-order https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/queries/hints-tr... There could also be hints that tell what kind of join to use and which indexes to use!