Does the url order matter in a XML sitemap?

Question

For search engines and website crawlers, does the url order matter in a XML sitemap?

Currently when the sitemap is generated, I order the website urls sequentially using a unique id, in the database. Should I order the urls in date order?

Sequential Sitemap

<urlset>
 <url>
  <loc>http://example.com/&lt;/loc&gt;
  <lastmod>2009-08-14</lastmod>
 </url>
 <url>
  <loc>http://example.com/article/1/about_us&lt;/loc&gt;
  <lastmod>2009-07-14</lastmod>
 </url>
 <url>
  <loc>http://example.com/article/2/contacts&lt;/loc&gt;
  <lastmod>2009-08-09</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

Date Ordered Sitemap

<urlset>
 <url>
  <loc>http://example.com/&lt;/loc&gt;
  <lastmod>2009-08-14</lastmod>
 </url>
 <url>
  <loc>http://example.com/article/2/contacts&lt;/loc&gt;
  <lastmod>2009-08-09</lastmod>
  </url>
 <url>
  <loc>http://example.com/article/1/about_us&lt;/loc&gt;
  <lastmod>2009-07-14</lastmod>
 </url>
</urlset>

Answer 1

After some more searching I found an answer on the FAQ at sitemaps.org.

Q: Does position of a URL in a Sitemap influence its use?

No. The position of a URL in the Sitemap is not likely to impact how it is used or regarded by search engines.