Rails 7: implicit_order_column does not order records

[john-999]

How to to reproduce:

In the file app/models/application_record.rb, add a implicit_order_column as follows:

class ApplicationRecord < ActiveRecord::Base
  primary_abstract_class
  self.implicit_order_column = 'created_at'
end

A query like...

User.all

...will fail to return the records in the created_at order.

System configuration

Rails version: Rails 7.0.2.2

Ruby version: ruby 3.0.1p64 (2021-04-05 revision 0fb782ee38) [x86_64-linux]

[fatkodima]

#34480 - It was meant that this is applied to ordered finder methods like first/last.

So, this is working as expected. I think I would be surprised if .all will be implicitly ordered.

[john-999]

It is my understanding that the most prominent use case of implicit_order_column is to accommodate the use of UUID as the primary key, in which case it seems natural to me to expect the .all query to support the same logic as .first and .last.

But that's just... like... my opinion, man. ;-)

[eugeneius]

As @fatkodima mentioned, this is working as intended (and documented):

https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/ModelSchema.html#method-c-implicit_order_column

The name of the column records are ordered by if no explicit order clause is used during an ordered finder call.

all is not an ordered finder call. Note that all executes SELECT * FROM table, with no order clause; first and last order by primary key by default, which is problematic when using UUIDs.