sql - 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 (publishedOn<=?)
ORDER BY publishedON DESC
LIMIT 1';

Will that return the last published pageRegion even if the record does not match the revision datetime IF LIMIT is applied after ORDER BY?

Answer 1

Yes, it's after the ORDER BY. For your query, you'd get the record with the highest publishedOn, since you're ordering DESC, making the largest value first in the result set, of which you pick out the first one.