7: Field order in objects

Now that all the place records that we used for testing are deleted, let’s create the one library that we will use in this tour. This time it will have two fields besides an id : a name , an address , and the number of floors . To do this, we can use SET along with the names of these fields and a value for each.

CREATE place:surreal_library SET
    name = "Surreal Library",
    address = "2025 Statement Street, Riverdale",
    place_type = "library",
    floors = 8;

While the fields inside the CREATE statement weren’t in alphabetical order, the output always will be.

[
	{
		address: '2025 Statement Street, Riverdale',
		floors: 8,
		id: library:76wabj5zw4g4qcuy9o3y,
		name: 'Surreal Library',
		place_type: 'library'
	}
]

This behaviour is because anything can be compared and ordered in SurrealDB. Even objects can be compared, because their fields are lined up alphabetically and compared in that order.

This next example returns true because the 9 of floors (alphabetically the first field) in the first object is greater than 8 in the second.

{
	floors: 9,
	name: 'A Library'
} > {
	floors: 8,
	name: 'Surreal Library'
};

But if you change name to a_name it will now be compared before floors . And because “A Library” (which starts with A) is less than “Surreal Library” (which starts with S), the output is now false .

{
	floors: 9,
	a_name: 'A Library'
} > {
	floors: 8,
	a_name: 'Surreal Library'
};