Q:

How does SQL handle where clauses in Oracle 11g?

This is only a short question to gain more knowledge about how SQL works.
If I have a query with multiple where conditions and for example the second statement is false, will the rest of the statements which come after the second one in the query still be evaluated or does SQL just skip at this point and begin again with the next row?
Example: 
SELECT * FROM MY_TABLE
   WHERE NAME = "PETER"
   AND LANGUAGE = "ENGLISH"
   AND COUNTRY = "UK"
   AND ENCRYPTION = "SHA-1";

Our database looks like this:
| NAME   | LANGUAGE | COUNTRY | ENCRYPTION |
  PETER, ENGLISH, UK, SHA-1
  PETER, FRENCH, SWITZERLAND, SHA-1
  PETER, ENGLISH, USA, SHA-1

Now when it gets to the second entry, would the query stop at the language condition because it is "false", ignore the following conditions and continue with the next entry or will it still check for country and encryption?

A:

SQL is declarative, i.e., your database system can choose to evaluate the WHERE clause in any order.
Furthermore, database systems try to use indices. E.g., if you have an index declared on COUNTRY, your database system will use this index to only get the tuples WITH COUNTRY='UK', and it will only evaluate the remaining conditions on these tuples. (I'm assuming this is the only index here for simplicity).
This is stronger than short-circuit evaluation, because in short-circuit evaluation, there is still an order of evaluation. In SQL, the way you write your statement does not force the database system to evaluate your conditions in a particular order. The database system will leverage this to improve the query response time.

