Default sort order in list in apex

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Default Sort Order of sObjects

The List.sort method sorts sObjects in ascending order and compares sObjects using an ordered sequence of steps that specify the labels or fields used. The comparison starts with the first step in the sequence and ends when two sObjects are sorted using specified labels or fields. The following is the comparison sequence used:

  1. The label of the sObject type.

    For example, an Account sObject will appear before a Contact.

  2. The Name field, if applicable.

    For example, if the list contains two accounts named A and B respectively, account A comes before account B.

  3. Standard fields, starting with the fields that come first in alphabetical order, except for the Id and Name fields.

    For example, if two accounts have the same name, the first standard field used for sorting is AccountNumber.

  4. Custom fields, starting with the fields that come first in alphabetical order.

    For example, suppose two accounts have the same name and identical standard fields, and there are two custom fields, FieldA and FieldB, the value of FieldA is used first for sorting.

Not all steps in this sequence are necessarily carried out. For example, if a list contains two sObjects of the same type and with unique Name values, they’re sorted based on the Name field and sorting stops at step 2. Otherwise, if the names are identical or the sObject doesn’t have a Name field, sorting proceeds to step 3 to sort by standard fields.

For text fields, the sort algorithm uses the Unicode sort order. Also, empty fields precede non-empty fields in the sort order.

This is an example of sorting a list of Account sObjects. This example shows how the Name field is used to place the Acme account ahead of the two sForce accounts in the list. Since there are two accounts named sForce, the Industry field is used to sort these remaining accounts because the Industry field comes before the Site field in alphabetical order.

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