ORDER BY

[Perrypackettracer]

Let's dive into the world of sorting in SQL. The ORDER BY clause is your trusty companion when it comes to arranging query results. It allows you to sort rows based on one or more columns, either in ascending (A-Z) or descending (Z-A) order. Here's how you can use it:

1. Basic Syntax:

   SELECT column1, column2, ...
   FROM table_name
   ORDER BY column1, column2, ... ASC|DESC;

   • Replace column1, column2, and table_name with your actual column names and table name.
   • The default sorting order is ascending (ASC), but you can explicitly specify descending (DESC) if needed.

2. Example 1: Sorting by Price: Suppose we have a table called "Products" with columns like ProductID, ProductName, SupplierID, CategoryID, Unit, and Price. To sort the products by price in ascending order:

   SELECT *
   FROM Products
   ORDER BY Price;

3. Example 2: Sorting in Descending Order: To sort the products from highest to lowest price:

   SELECT *
   FROM Products
   ORDER BY Price DESC;

4. Alphabetical Sorting:

   • For string values, the ORDER BY keyword will order alphabetically. For instance, to sort products alphabetically by their names:

     SELECT *
     FROM Products
     ORDER BY ProductName;

   • To sort in reverse alphabetical order, use the DESC keyword:

     SELECT *
     FROM Products
     ORDER BY ProductName DESC;

5. Sorting by Multiple Columns:

   • You can sort by multiple columns. For example, to sort customers by country and then by customer name:

     SELECT *
     FROM Customers
     ORDER BY Country, CustomerName;

   • To mix ascending and descending sorting, use both ASC and DESC:

     SELECT *
     FROM Customers
     ORDER BY Country ASC, CustomerName DESC;

Remember, the ORDER BY clause is your SQL compass for navigating through sorted data. Happy querying! 🗂️🔍

Source: Conversation with Bing, 2/4/2024 (1) SQL ORDER BY Keyword - W3Schools. https://www.w3schools.com/SQL/sql_orderby.asp. (2) SQL ORDER BY - SQL Tutorial. https://www.sqltutorial.org/sql-order-by/. (3) A Detailed Guide to SQL ORDER BY - LearnSQL.com. https://learnsql.com/blog/sql-order-by-detailed-guide/.