in text citations

If there's a paper written by the following authors: Ashikali, Dittmar & Ayers

when writing in text citations, would you not list their names alphabetically, according to their surnames? In an example of an in text citation for these authors, it was not in alphabetical order? So it was like (Ashikali, Dittmar & Ayers, 2014)

I'm confused

You cite them in the order they are listed on the paper. They are in 'contribution order', not alphabetical order (i.e. the first author listed made the biggest contribution to the paper, followed by the second author who made the second biggest contribution etc.).

ohh, so when do you actually have to use alphabetical order? Is that for references only or?

You don't change the order of the authors within a reference, but you list separate sources (each reference) in alphabetical order in your reference list. So: Ashikali, Dittmar, & Ayers would come after Aaronson for example, but before Denmark.