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
See Also
Tasks
How to: Display an Actual Execution Plan
Concepts
Logical and Physical Operators Reference
Displaying Execution Plans by Using the Showplan SET Options (Transact-SQL)