Order By Clause in SQL

by Shikha Katariya · August 18, 2015

Order By Clause in SQL is used to sort the resultset in ascending or descending order.

By default it sorts the result in Ascending order.
Asc Keyword is used for Ascending Order and Desc Keyword is used for Descending Order.
The Sorting can be done on the basis of one or more then one column.
Besides the Column names, Sorting can also be done on the basis of Column Position.
Order By always comes in the last of the Select sequence.

Sorting in Ascending Order –

SELECT <Col Name> from <Tablename> WHERE <Condition> ORDER BY <Col > Asc ;

SELECT <Col Name> from <Tablename> WHERE <Condition> ORDER BY <Col >;

Note : If no order is specified then by default it takes Ascending order.

Sorting in Descending Order –

SELECT <Col Name> from <Tablename> WHERE <Condition> ORDER BY <Col > DESC;

Sorting on the basis of multiple columns –

SELECT <Col Name> from <Tablename> WHERE <Condition> ORDER BY <Col 1> DESC , <Col 2 > ASC ;

Sorting on the bais of relative position –

SELECT <Col Name> from <Tablename> WHERE <Condition> ORDER BY <Col Position> DESC;

SELECT <Col Name> from <Tablename> WHERE <Condition> ORDER BY <Col Position> ASC;