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SQL Order By

Using a SQL SELECT statement can retreive many hundreds or even thousands of records. In some cases you might find it useful to sort the records by a given column. For example, when selecting records from the Individual table, you might like to sort them by the LastName column.

SQL statement

SELECT * FROM Individual
ORDER BY LastName

Source Table

IndividualId	FirstName	LastName	UserName
1	Fred	Flinstone	freddo
2	Homer	Simpson	homey
3	Homer	Brown	notsofamous
4	Ozzy	Ozzbourne	sabbath
5	Homer	Gain	noplacelike

Result

IndividualId	FirstName	LastName	UserName
3	Homer	Brown	notsofamous
1	Fred	Flinstone	freddo
5	Homer	Gain	noplacelike
4	Ozzy	Ozzbourne	sabbath
2	Homer	Simpson	homey

Descending Order

By default, ORDER BY sorts the column in ascending order - that is, from lowest values to highest values. You could also explicitly state this using the ASC keyword, but it's not necessary.

If you want highest values to appear first, you can use the DESC keyword.

SQL statement

SELECT * FROM Individual
ORDER BY LastName DESC

Result

IndividualId	FirstName	LastName	UserName
2	Homer	Simpson	homey
4	Ozzy	Ozzbourne	sabbath
5	Homer	Gain	noplacelike
1	Fred	Flinstone	freddo
3	Homer	Brown	notsofamous

Sorting By Multiple Columns

You can sort by multiple columns by stating each column in the ORDER BY clause, separating each column name with a comma. SQL will first order the results by the first column, then the second, and so on for as many columns that are included in the ORDER BY clause.

SQL statement

SELECT * FROM Individual
ORDER BY FirstName, LastName

Result

IndividualId	FirstName	LastName	UserName
1	Fred	Flinstone	freddo
3	Homer	Brown	notsofamous
5	Homer	Gain	noplacelike
2	Homer	Simpson	homey
4	Ozzy	Ozzbourne	sabbath

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