SQL ORDER BY Clause | Sorting Results in Ascending & Descending Order

SQL ORDER BY

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In real life, information is always easier to understand when it is organized.

Examples

Student list sorted by marks

Product list sorted by price

Employees sorted by joining date

When data is stored in a database, it is not saved in any meaningful order for display purposes.

So, when we retrieve data, SQL needs instructions on how to arrange the result.

This is why SQL provides the ORDER BY clause.

What Is the ORDER BY Clause?

The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the result set of a query based on one or more columns.

ORDER BY controls how the output is displayed, not how data is stored in the table.

Syntax

SELECT column1, column2
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column_name;

By default, sorting is done in ascending order.

Sorting Order of ASC and DESC

SQL provides two sorting directions

Keyword	Meaning
ASC	Ascending order (default)
DESC	Descending order

Example: employees Table

id	name	salary	department
1	Amit	60000	IT
2	Neha	75000	HR
3	Rahul	50000	IT
4	Priya	90000	Finance
5	Karan	45000	HR

Example - 1: Sort by Salary (Ascending)

SELECT name, salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary ASC;

Displays employees from lowest to highest salary.

Example - 2: Sort by Salary (Descending)

SELECT name, salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary DESC;

Displays employees from highest to lowest salary.

Sorting Text Data

When sorting text columns:

ASC - Alphabetical order (A to Z)

DESC - Reverse alphabetical order (Z to A)

Example: Sort by Name

SELECT *
FROM employees
ORDER BY name;

Sorted alphabetically by employee name.

ORDER BY with Multiple Columns

Why Multiple Columns Are Needed

Sometimes, one column is not enough for meaningful sorting.

Example

First sort by department

Then sort by salary within each department

Syntax

SELECT *
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column1, column2;

Example: Sort by Department, then Salary

SELECT *
FROM employees
ORDER BY department ASC, salary DESC;

Employees are grouped by department, and within each department, sorted by salary.

ORDER BY with WHERE Clause

The WHERE clause filters data before sorting.

Example: Sort Delhi Employees by Salary

SELECT *
FROM employees
WHERE department = 'IT'
ORDER BY salary DESC;

Only IT department employees are sorted by salary.

ORDER BY with LIMIT (Top-N Queries)

ORDER BY is commonly used with LIMIT to fetch top or bottom records.

Example: Top 3 Highest Paid Employees

SELECT name, salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary DESC
LIMIT 3;

Returns the top 3 highest-paid employees.

Important Points About ORDER BY

ORDER BY always comes at the end of the query

Default sorting is ascending

Sorting affects only the result set

ORDER BY can use column names or column positions

ORDER BY improves readability of output

Two Minute Drill

ORDER BY is used to sort query results
ASC sorts in ascending order
DESC sorts in descending order
Multiple columns can be used for sorting
WHERE filters first, ORDER BY sorts later
Commonly used with LIMIT for Top-N queries