SQL Order By Clause

Order By clause is used to sorts the record in Ascending or Descending Order.

1) ORDER BY ASC:- It is used to sorts the record in ascending order.


SELECT * FROM table_name OREDR BY column_name ASC

Example:- Suppose we have employees table which has 7 records


+----+------------+-----------+----------------+------------+
| id | first_name | last_name | email          | address    |
+----+------------+-----------+----------------+------------+
|  1 | John       | Tailor    | john@abc.com   | California |
|  2 | Rom        | Tailor    | rom@abc.com    | California |
|  3 | Andrew     | Symonds   | andrew@abc.com | Sydney     |
|  4 | Miacle     | clerk     | miacle@abc.com | sydney     |
|  5 | Sachin     | Tendulkar | sachin@abc.com | Mumbai     |
|  6 | Virat      | Kohli     | virat@abc.com  | delhi      |
|  7 | rohit      | NULL      | rohit@abc.com  | NULL       |
+----+------------+-----------+----------------+------------+

Now, we want to get the record Order by first_name in ascending order


SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY first_name ASC

Output:-


+----+------------+-----------+----------------+------------+
| id | first_name | last_name | email          | address    |
+----+------------+-----------+----------------+------------+
|  3 | Andrew     | Symonds   | andrew@abc.com | Sydney     |
|  1 | John       | Tailor    | john@abc.com   | California |
|  4 | Miacle     | clerk     | miacle@abc.com | sydney     |
|  7 | rohit      | NULL      | rohit@abc.com  | NULL       |
|  2 | Rom        | Tailor    | rom@abc.com    | California |
|  5 | Sachin     | Tendulkar | sachin@abc.com | Mumbai     |
|  6 | Virat      | Kohli     | virat@abc.com  | delhi      |
+----+------------+-----------+----------------+------------+

2) ORDER BY DESC:- It is used to sorts the record in descending order.

Syntax:-


SELECT * FROM table_name OREDR BY column_name DESC

Now, we want to get the record Order by first_name in descending order


SELECT * FROM employees ORDER BY first_name DESC

Output:-


+----+------------+-----------+----------------+------------+
| id | first_name | last_name | email          | address    |
+----+------------+-----------+----------------+------------+
|  6 | Virat      | Kohli     | virat@abc.com  | delhi      |
|  5 | Sachin     | Tendulkar | sachin@abc.com | Mumbai     |
|  2 | Rom        | Tailor    | rom@abc.com    | California |
|  7 | rohit      | NULL      | rohit@abc.com  | NULL       |
|  4 | Miacle     | clerk     | miacle@abc.com | sydney     |
|  1 | John       | Tailor    | john@abc.com   | California |
|  3 | Andrew     | Symonds   | andrew@abc.com | Sydney     |
+----+------------+-----------+----------------+------------+

SQL Order By Clause – Interview Questions

Q 1: What is ORDER BY used for?

Ans: ORDER BY sorts the result set in ascending or descending order.

Q 2: What is the default sorting order?

Ans: Ascending (ASC).

Q 3: Can ORDER BY sort by multiple columns?

Ans: Yes, sorting is applied in the specified column order.

Q 4: Can ORDER BY use column aliases?

Ans: Yes, aliases can be used.

Q 5: Does ORDER BY affect stored data?

Ans: No, it only sorts the output.