Best practices for the order of joined columns in a sql join?

Question

There's a big discussion going on at my office on the order of the joined columns in a sql join. I'm finding it hard explaining it so I'll just present the two sql statements. Which one is better taking into account sql best practices?

SELECT a.Au_id 
FROM   AUTHORS a 
       INNER JOIN TITLEAUTHOR ta 
         ON a.Au_id = ta.Au_id 
       INNER JOIN TITLES t 
         ON ta.Title_id = t.Title_id 
WHERE  t.Title LIKE ‘%Computer%’ 

OR

SELECT a.Au_id 
FROM   AUTHORS a 
       INNER JOIN TITLEAUTHOR ta 
         ON ta.Au_id = a.Au_id
       INNER JOIN TITLES t 
         ON t.Title_id = ta.Title_id
WHERE  t.Title LIKE ‘%Computer%’ 

So, in a join, in the ON part, does it matter whether you write A.x = B.y or B.y = A.x?

Answer 1

The best practice here is to choose one and stick with it within the team. Personally, I prefer the FROM a JOIN b ON b.col = a.col because it seems cleaner to me.