The reverse_unordered_selects
pragma gets or sets
the reverse select flag. If this flag is set, SQLite will
reverse the natural ordering of SELECT
statements that do not have an explicit
ORDER BY
clause.
SQLite, as well as the SQL standard,
makes no promises about the ordering of SELECT
results that do not have an explicit
ORDER BY
clause.
Changes in the database (such as adding an index), or changes in
the query optimizer can cause SQLite to return rows in a
different order.
Unfortunately, writing application code that is dependent on the results order is a common mistake. This pragma can be used to help find and fix those types of bugs by altering the default output order. This can be especially effective if it is turned on or off randomly before each query.