SQLORDER BY Keyword

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The SQL ORDER BY

TheORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set in ascending or descending order.

Example

Sort the products by price:

SELECT * FROM Products
ORDER BY Price;

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Syntax

SELECTcolumn1, column2, ... FROMtable_name ORDER BYcolumn1, column2, ...ASC|DESC;

Demo Database

Below is a selection from theProducts table used in the examples:

ProductID	ProductName	SupplierID	CategoryID	Unit	Price
1	Chais	1	1	10 boxes x 20 bags	18
2	Chang	1	1	24 - 12 oz bottles	19
3	Aniseed Syrup	1	2	12 - 550 ml bottles	10
4	Chef Anton's Cajun Seasoning	2	2	48 - 6 oz jars	22
5	Chef Anton's Gumbo Mix	2	2	36 boxes	21.35

DESC

TheORDER BY keyword sorts the records in ascending order by default. To sort the records in descending order, use theDESC keyword.

Example

Sort the products from highest to lowest price:

SELECT * FROM Products
ORDER BY Price DESC;

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Order Alphabetically

For string values theORDER BY keyword will order alphabetically:

Example

Sort the products alphabetically by ProductName:

SELECT * FROM Products
ORDER BY ProductName;

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Alphabetically DESC

To sort the table reverse alphabetically, use theDESC keyword:

Example

Sort the products by ProductName in reverse order:

SELECT * FROM Products
ORDER BY ProductName DESC;

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ORDER BY Several Columns

The following SQL statement selects all customers from the "Customers" table, sorted by the "Country" and the "CustomerName" column. This means that it orders by Country, but if some rows have the same Country, it orders them by CustomerName:

Example

SELECT * FROM Customers
ORDER BY Country, CustomerName;

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Using Both ASC and DESC

The following SQL statement selects all customers from the "Customers" table, sorted ascending by the "Country" and descending by the "CustomerName" column: