Is MySQL LIMIT applied before or after ORDER BY?

Question

Which one comes first when MySQL processes the query?

An example:

SELECT pageRegions
FROM pageRegions WHERE(pageID=?) AND(published=true) AND (publis         


        

Answer 1

The limit is always applied at the end of result gathering, therefore after order by.

Given all your clauses, the order of processing will be

• FROM
• WHERE
• SELECT
• ORDER BY
• LIMIT

So you will get the closest record <= publishedOn matching all the conditions in the WHERE clause.