SQL | ORDER BY

The ORDER BY statement in sql is used to sort the fetched data in either ascending or descending according to one or more columns.

• By default ORDER BY sorts the data in ascending order.
• We can use the keyword DESC to sort the data in descending order and the keyword ASC to sort in ascending order.

Syntax of all ways of using ORDER BY is shown below:

• Sort according to one column: To sort in ascending or descending order we can use the keywords ASC or DESC respectively.
  Syntax:

  SELECT * FROM table_name ORDER BY column_name ASC|DESC
  
  table_name: name of the table.
  column_name: name of the column according to which the data is needed to be arranged.
  ASC: to sort the data in ascending order.
  DESC: to sort the data in descending order.
  | : use either ASC or DESC to sort in ascending or descending order
  

• Sort according to multiple columns: To sort in ascending or descending order we can use the keywords ASC or DESC respectively. To sort according to multiple columns, separate the names of columns by (,) operator.
  Syntax:

  SELECT * FROM table_name ORDER BY column1 ASC|DESC , column2 ASC|DESC
  

Queries:

• Sort according to single column: In this example we will fetch all data from the table Student and sort the result in descending order according to the column ROLL_NO.

  SELECT * FROM Student ORDER BY ROLL_NO DESC;
  

  Output:

  ROLL_NO	NAME	ADDRESS	PHONE	Age
  8	NIRAJ	ALIPUR	XXXXXXXXXX	19
  7	ROHIT	BALURGHAT	XXXXXXXXXX	18
  6	DHANRAJ	BARABAJAR	XXXXXXXXXX	20
  5	SAPTARHI	KOLKATA	XXXXXXXXXX	19
  4	DEEP	RAMNAGAR	XXXXXXXXXX	18
  3	RIYANKA	SILIGURI	XXXXXXXXXX	20
  2	PRATIK	BIHAR	XXXXXXXXXX	19
  1	HARSH	DELHI	XXXXXXXXXX	18

  To sort in ascending order we have to use ASC in place of DESC.

• Sort according to multiple columns:In this example we will fetch all data from the table Student and then sort the result in ascending order first according to the column Age. and then in descending order according to the column ROLL_NO.

  SELECT * FROM Student ORDER BY Age ASC , ROLL_NO DESC;
  

  Output:

  ROLL_NO	NAME	ADDRESS	PHONE	Age
  7	ROHIT	BALURGHAT	XXXXXXXXXX	18
  4	DEEP	RAMNAGAR	XXXXXXXXXX	18
  1	HARSH	DELHI	XXXXXXXXXX	18
  8	NIRAJ	ALIPUR	XXXXXXXXXX	19
  5	SAPTARHI	KOLKATA	XXXXXXXXXX	19
  2	PRATIK	BIHAR	XXXXXXXXXX	19
  6	DHANRAJ	BARABAJAR	XXXXXXXXXX	20
  3	RIYANKA	SILIGURI	XXXXXXXXXX	20

  In the above output you can see that first the result is sorted in ascending order according to Age.

  There are multiple rows having same Age. Now, sorting further this result-set according to ROLL_NO will sort the rows with same Age according to ROLL_NO in descending order.

• Note that: ASC is the default value for ORDER BY clause. So, if you don’t specify anything after column name in ORDER BY clause, the output will be sorted in ascending order by default.

  Example: The following query will give similar output as the above:

  SELECT * FROM Student ORDER BY Age , ROLL_NO DESC;
  

  Output:

  ROLL_NO	NAME	ADDRESS	PHONE	Age
  7	ROHIT	BALURGHAT	XXXXXXXXXX	18
  4	DEEP	RAMNAGAR	XXXXXXXXXX	18
  1	HARSH	DELHI	XXXXXXXXXX	18
  8	NIRAJ	ALIPUR	XXXXXXXXXX	19
  5	SAPTARHI	KOLKATA	XXXXXXXXXX	19
  2	PRATIK	BIHAR	XXXXXXXXXX	19
  6	DHANRAJ	BARABAJAR	XXXXXXXXXX	20
  3	RIYANKA	SILIGURI	XXXXXXXXXX	20

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