SQL SORTING Results

The SQL ORDER BY clause is used to sort the data in ascending or descending order, based on one or more columns. Some database sorts query results in ascending order by default.

Syntax:

The basic syntax of ORDER BY clause which would be used to sort result in ascending or descending order is as follows:

SELECT column-list FROM table_name [WHERE condition] [ORDER BY column1, column2, .. columnN] [ASC | DESC];

You can use more than one column in the ORDER BY clause. Make sure whatever column you are using to sort, that column should be in column-list.

Example:

Consider CUSTOMERS table is having following records:

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

| ID | NAME     | AGE | ADDRESS    | SALARY   |

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

|  1 | Ramesh   |  32 | Ahmedabad |  2000.00 |

|  2 | Khilan   |  25 | Delhi     |  1500.00 |

|  3 | kaushik  |  23 | Kota      |  2000.00 |

|  4 | Chaitali |  25 | Mumbai    |  6500.00 |

|  5 | Hardik   |  27 | Bhopal    |  8500.00 |

|  6 | Komal    |  22 | MP        |  4500.00 |

|  7 | Muffy    |  24 | Indore    | 10000.00 |

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

Following is an example which would sort the result in ascending order by NAME and SALARY:

SQL> SELECT * FROM CUSTOMERS ORDER BY NAME, SALARY;

This would produce following result:

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

| ID | NAME     | AGE | ADDRESS   | SALARY   |

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

|  4 | Chaitali |  25 | Mumbai    |  6500.00 |

|  5 | Hardik   |  27 | Bhopal    |  8500.00 |

|  3 | kaushik  |  23 | Kota      |  2000.00 |

|  2 | Khilan   |  25 | Delhi     |  1500.00 |

|  6 | Komal    |  22 | MP        |  4500.00 |

|  7 | Muffy    |  24 | Indore    | 10000.00 |

|  1 | Ramesh   |  32 | Ahmedabad |   2000.00 |

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

Following is an example which would sort the result in descending order by NAME:

SQL> SELECT * FROM CUSTOMERS ORDER BY NAME DESC;

This would produce following result:

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

| ID | NAME     | AGE | ADDRESS   | SALARY   |

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

|  1 | Ramesh   |  32 | Ahmedabad |   2000.00 |

|  7 | Muffy    |  24 | Indore    | 10000.00 |

|  6 | Komal    |  22 | MP        |  4500.00 |

|  2 | Khilan   |  25 | Delhi     |  1500.00 |

|  3 | kaushik  |  23 | Kota      |  2000.00 |

|  5 | Hardik   |  27 | Bhopal    |  8500.00 |

|  4 | Chaitali |  25 | Mumbai    |  6500.00 |

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

To fetch the rows with own preferred order, the SELECT query would as follows:

SQL> SELECT * FROM CUSTOMERS ORDER BY (CASE ADDRESS

WHEN 'DELHI'           THEN 1

WHEN 'BHOPAL'          THEN 2

WHEN 'KOTA'   THEN 3

WHEN 'AHMADABAD' THEN 4

WHEN 'MP'    THEN 5

ELSE 100 END) ASC, ADDRESS DESC;

This would produce following result:

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

| ID | NAME     | AGE | ADDRESS   | SALARY   |

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

|  2 | Khilan   |  25 | Delhi     |  1500.00 |

|  5 | Hardik   |  27 | Bhopal    |  8500.00 |

|  3 | kaushik  |  23 | Kota      |  2000.00 |

|  6 | Komal    |  22 | MP        |  4500.00 |

|  4 | Chaitali |  25 | Mumbai    |  6500.00 |

|  7 | Muffy    |  24 | Indore    | 10000.00 |

|  1 | Ramesh   |  32 | Ahmedabad |   2000.00 |

+----+----------+-----+-----------+----------+

This will sort customers by ADDRESS in your ownoOrder of preference first and in a natural  order for the remaining addresses. Also remaining Addresses will be sorted in the reverse alpha order.