This statement indicates one of the ways in which the result rows can be returned from a table. With Using GETSORTED Table Scan, the rows are returned in sorted order. However, not all queries that return rows in sorted order will have this step. If a query has an ORDER BY clause and an index with the proper sort sequence exists on the columns being ordered, an intermediate sort might not be necessary and the rows can simply be returned in order by using the available index. The Using GETSORTED Table Scan method is used when SQL Server must first create a temporary worktable to sort the result rows and then return them in the proper sorted order.
The following example shows a query that requires a worktable to be created and the rows returned in sorted order:
SELECT au_id, au_lname, au_fname, city FROM authors ORDER BY city
STEP 1 The type of query is INSERT The update mode is direct Worktable created for ORDER BY FROM TABLE authors Nested iteration Table Scan TO TABLE Worktable 1 STEP 2 The type of query is SELECT This step involves sorting FROM TABLE Worktable 1 Using GETSORTED Table Scan