SQL ORDER BY

After being learn through all the displaying data syntax. It’s time to learn how to sort data by using ORDER BY.

Yes it is. ORDER BY clause allows you to sort the records in your result set. This clause can only be used in SELECT statements. The ORDER BY clause sorts the result set based on the columns specified by ASC or DESC value is stated. If not the system assumed the sorting is ascending order.

Let's see on the syntax:

SELECT [COLUMN NAME] FROM [TABLE NAME] ORDER BY [COLUMN 1]

ASC indicates ascending order. (This value is default sorting for SQL syntax)
DESC indicates descending order.

EXAMPLE#1 :

Table GameScores

PlayerName	Department	Scores
Jason	IT	3000
Irene	IT	1500
Jane	Marketing	1000
David	Marketing	2500
Paul	HR	2000
James	HR	2000

let's see some simple sorting from the SQL statement using ORDER BY SQL statement :

SELECT * FROM GameScores ORDER BY Scores

Result:

PlayerName	Department	Scores
Jane	Marketing	1000
Irene	IT	1500
Paul	HR	2000
James	HR	2000
David	Marketing	2500
Jason	IT	3000

Result will be the same if the SQL statement write like this :

SELECT * FROM GameScores ORDER BY Scores ASC

EXAMPLE#2 :

let's see the example of sorting by DESC (descending order)
SQL statement :

SELECT * FROM GameScores ORDER BY Scores DESC

Result:

PlayerName	Department	Scores
Jason	IT	3000
David	Marketing	2500
Paul	HR	2000
James	HR	2000
Irene	IT	1500
Jane	Marketing	1000