SQL Order by : Keyword

SQL ORDER BY Keyword :

  1. SQL ORDER BY keyword is used to sort the table either in ascending order or in descending order.
  2. Table is sorted in Ascending order by default.
  3. If you need to sort the table in descending order then we can use DESC keyword.

Consider the following syntax of the SQL ORDER BY Keyword -

SELECT Column_Name(s) FROM Table_Name ORDER BY Column_Name(s) ASC or DESC

ORDER BY Example : #ASC

Consider following employee_detail table -

ID ENAME AGE ADDRESS SALARY
1 Raj 20 Pune 1000.00
2 Saurabh 20 Pune 6000.00
3 Omkar 24 Mumbai 4000.00
4 Anand 23 Nagpur 3000.00
5 Anmol 29 Goa 1000.00
6 Poonam 25 Delhi 9000.00 
SQL> SELECT * FROM employee_detail ORDER BY ENAME;

Result will look like this (by default descending order) -

ID ENAME AGE ADDRESS SALARY
4 Anand 23 Nagpur 3000.00
5 Anmol 29 Goa 1000.00
3 Omkar 24 Mumbai 4000.00
6 Poonam 25 Delhi 9000.00
1 Raj 20 Pune 1000.00
2 Saurabh 20 Pune 6000.00

Consider the following query to sort the column in descending order -

SQL> SELECT * FROM employee_detail ORDER BY ENAME DESC;
ID ENAME AGE ADDRESS SALARY
2 Saurabh 20 Pune 6000.00
1 Raj 20 Pune 1000.00
6 Poonam 25 Delhi 9000.00
3 Omkar 24 Mumbai 4000.00
5 Anmol 29 Goa 1000.00
4 Anand 23 Nagpur 3000.00