SQL Order By

The SQL ORDER BY Keyword

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

The ORDER BY keyword sorts the records in ascending order by default. To sort the records in descending order, use the DESC keyword.

ORDER BY Syntax

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column1, column2, ... ASC|DESC;

Demo Database

Below is a selection from the "Consumer" table :

Examples

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

SELECT * FROM Customers
ORDER BY Country;

ORDER BY DESC Example

The following SQL statement selects all customers from the "Customers" table, sorted DESCENDING by the "Country" column

SELECT * FROM Customers
ORDER BY Country;

ORDER BY Several Columns Example

The following SQL statement selects all customers from the "Customers" table, sorted by the "Country" and the "Customer Name" column:

SELECT * FROM Customers
ORDER BY Country, Customer Name;

ORDER BY Several Columns Example 2

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

SELECT * FROM Customers
ORDER BY Country ASC, CustomerName DESC;

Exercises :

Table - Customer

customer_id  cust_name     city        grade       salesman_id
-----------  ------------  ----------  ----------  -----------
3002         Nick Rimando  New York    100         5001
3005         Graham Zusi   California  200         5002
3001         Brad Guzan    London                  5005
3004         Fabian Johns  Paris       300         5006
3007         Brad Davis    New York    200         5001
3009         Geoff Camero  Berlin      100         5003
3008         Julian Green  London      300         5002
3003         Jozy Altidor  Moscow      200         5007

1. Write a query to display the orders according to the order number arranged by ascending order.

2. Write a SQL statement to display the customer name, city, and grade, etc. and the display will be arranged according to the smallest customer ID.

3. Write a SQL statement to make a report with salesman ID, order date and highest purchase amount in such an arrangement that, the smallest salesman ID will come first along with their smallest order date.

4. Write a SQL statement to display customer name, city and grade in such a manner that, the customer holding highest grade will come first.

5. Write a SQL statement to arrange the orders according to the order date in such a manner that the latest date will come first then previous dates.