Why does an unknown estimate lead a smallest-effort list?

Prepare the report input

Original presentation lists known estimates ascending, then unknowns, with id as tie order. SQLite ASC normally places NULL first. NULLS LAST implements the supplied display policy while preserving NULL. No work is assigned by this report.

Every record and report rule below is original and fictional. Reproduce the setup in a fresh SQLite test database; input previews include every table in this small fixture.

CREATE TABLE estimates(id TEXT PRIMARY KEY,hours INTEGER); INSERT INTO estimates VALUES('A',NULL),('B',2),('C',5);

Compare misleading and corrected results

SELECT id,hours FROM estimates ORDER BY hours,id;

SELECT id,hours FROM estimates ORDER BY hours NULLS LAST,id;

Bad list starts unknown A; corrected list is B=2,C=5,A unknown. Unknown is not an observed zero-hour estimate.

Check a fresh boundary case

Make every estimate NULL. The output remains an all-unknown list ordered by id, not a claimed smallest known job.

Recreate the original setup in another fresh database, then apply the change and corrected query below. For an empty result, the table displays a labelled empty-result marker rather than a data record.

UPDATE estimates SET hours=NULL;
SELECT id,hours FROM estimates ORDER BY hours NULLS LAST,id;