If two records have the same order date, how would you determine which one is the latest order?

SQL queries that rely on a single column for ordering can produce nondeterministic results when multiple rows share the same value. To reliably pick the “latest” row you need a deterministic tie‑breaker. Common strategies are: 1) Add a unique column such as an auto‑incrementing order_id or a timestamp that is guaranteed to be unique. 2) If only order_date is available, add a secondary column like order_time or a surrogate key. 3) In SQL you can use a window function: ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY customer_id ORDER BY order_date DESC, order_id DESC) AS rn; then filter rn = 1. The key is to have a unique ordering column; otherwise the result is nondeterministic and the database may return any of the rows with the same order_date.