To answer this question, let's go through each option to understand why it is correct or incorrect:
Option A) The sort is in ascending order by default - This option is correct. If the ORDER BY clause does not specify ASC or DESC, the sort order is ascending by default.
Option B) The sort is in descending order by default - This option is incorrect. As mentioned above, the sort order is ascending by default.
Option C) The ORDER BY clause must precede the WHERE clause - This option is incorrect. The WHERE clause is used to filter rows based on a condition, and it comes before the ORDER BY clause in the SELECT statement.
Option D) The ORDER BY clause is executed on the client side - This option is incorrect. The ORDER BY clause is executed on the database server side, not on the client side.
Option E) The ORDER BY clause comes last in the SELECT statement - This option is correct. The ORDER BY clause is typically the last clause in a SELECT statement, used to sort the result set based on one or more columns.
Option F) The ORDER BY clause is executed first in the query execution - This option is incorrect. The ORDER BY clause is executed after the WHERE clause and other clauses (such as GROUP BY and HAVING) that may be present in the query.
The correct answers are A and E. The sort is in ascending order by default, and the ORDER BY clause comes last in the SELECT statement.