Does the join order matter in SQL?

Question

Disregarding performance, will I get the same result from query A and B below? How about C and D?

-- A
select *
from   a left join b
           on 

        

Answer 1

If you try joining C on a field from B before joining B, i.e.:

SELECT A.x, A.y, A.z FROM A 
   INNER JOIN C
       on B.x = C.x
   INNER JOIN b
       on A.x = B.x

your query will fail, so in this case the order matters.