Execution sequence of Group By, Having and Where clause in SQL Server?

in order:

FROM & JOINs determine & filter rows
WHERE more filters on the rows
GROUP BY combines those rows into groups
HAVING filters groups
ORDER BY arranges the remaining rows/groups
LIMIT filters on the remaining rows/groups


Here is the complete sequence for sql server :

1.  FROM
2.  ON
3.  JOIN
4.  WHERE
5.  GROUP BY
6.  WITH CUBE or WITH ROLLUP
7.  HAVING
8.  SELECT
9.  DISTINCT
10. ORDER BY
11. TOP

So from the above list, you can easily understand the execution sequence of GROUP BY, HAVING and WHERE which is :

1.  WHERE
2.  GROUP BY
3.  HAVING

Get more information about it from Microsoft

More explanation


WHERE is first, then you GROUP the result of the query, and last but not least HAVING-clause is taken to filter the grouped result. This is the "logical" order, I don't know how this is technically implemented in the engine.