SQL ORDER BY Keyword

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set.

The ORDER BY Keyword

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set by a specified column. The ORDER BY keyword sort the records in ascending order by default.  If you want to sort the records in a descending order, you can use the DESC keyword.

SQL ORDER BY Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)       FROM        table_name          ORDER BY column_name(s) ASC|DESC

 

ORDER BY Example

“Persons” TABLE:

P_Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Suhail	Osmani	Maharaj Nagar	Sitapur
2	Maxwel	Tom	Biswan	Sitapur
3	Rahi	Ayon	Okhla	Delhi
4	Nyla	Tom	Rohini	Delhi

Now we want to select all the persons from the table above, however, we want to sort the persons by their last name.
We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons  ORDER BY LastName

Output:

P_Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
2	Maxwel	Tom	Biswan	Sitapur
4	Nyla	Tom	Rohini	Delhi
3	Rahi	Ayon	Okhla	Delhi
1	Suhail	Osmani	Maharaj Nagar	Sitapur

11.ORDER BY DESC Example

Now we want to select all the persons from the table above, however, we want to sort the persons descending by their last name.
We use the following SELECT statement:

SELECT * FROM Persons  ORDER BY LastName DESC

Output:

P_Id	LastName	FirstName	Address	City
1	Suhail	Osmani	Maharaj Nagar	Sitapur
3	Rahi	Ayon	Okhla	Delhi
4	Nyla	Tom	Rohini	Delhi
2	Maxwel	Tom	Biswan	Sitapur