SQL ORDER BY Keyword

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set.

The SQL ORDER BY Keyword

The ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the result-set by one or more columns.

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

SELECT column_name,column_name
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column_name,column_name ASC|DESC;

In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Address	City	PostalCode	Country
1	Alfreds Futterkiste	Maria Anders	Obere Str. 57	Berlin	12209	Germany
2	Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados	Ana Trujillo	Avda. de la Constitución 2222	México D.F.	05021	Mexico
3	Antonio Moreno Taquería	Antonio Moreno	Mataderos 2312	México D.F.	05023	Mexico
4	Around the Horn	Thomas Hardy	120 Hanover Sq.	London	WA1 1DP	UK
5	Berglunds snabbköp	Christina Berglund	Berguvsvägen 8	Luleå	S-958 22	Sweden

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

SELECT * FROM Customers
ORDER BY Country;

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

SELECT * FROM Customers
ORDER BY Country DESC;

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

SELECT * FROM Customers
ORDER BY Country,CustomerName;