SQL Order By

The ORDER BY clause sorts query results in ascending or descending order. Learn how to sort by one or multiple columns.

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SQL ORDER BY

The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the result set of a query. By default, results are sorted in ascending order.

Basic Syntax

SELECT column1, column2
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column1;

Ascending Order (ASC)

ASC sorts values from smallest to largest (A to Z, 0 to 9). ASC is the default, so you do not need to write it explicitly.

SELECT name, price
FROM products
ORDER BY price ASC;

Descending Order (DESC)

DESC sorts values from largest to smallest (Z to A, 9 to 0).

SELECT name, price
FROM products
ORDER BY price DESC;

Order By Multiple Columns

You can sort by more than one column. SQL sorts by the first column, then by the second if there are ties.

SELECT name, country, city
FROM customers
ORDER BY country ASC, city ASC;

Using ORDER BY with WHERE

ORDER BY is often combined with WHERE to filter and then sort the result.

SELECT name, price
FROM products
WHERE price > 100
ORDER BY price DESC;

Sorting Text and Numbers

Numeric columns are sorted numerically. Text columns are sorted alphabetically according to the database collation settings.

Sorting with Aliases

You can sort by a column alias defined in the SELECT clause.

SELECT name, price * quantity AS total
FROM order_items
ORDER BY total DESC;

NULL Sorting Behavior

The position of NULL values in sorting may vary between database systems. In many systems, NULL values appear first in ascending order and last in descending order.

Performance Note

Sorting large result sets can be expensive. Using indexes on frequently sorted columns can significantly improve performance.

Next Step

Continue with SQL AND to combine multiple conditions in a WHERE clause.

← SQL Where

SQL And →