SQL ORDER BY

The SQL ORDER BY clause is used to sort the result-set, it can only be used in SELECT statements.

SQL ORDER BY Syntax

SELECT Columns
FROM tables
ORDER BY Column1 ASC|DESC {, Column2 ASC|DESC}+

The {}+ means that we can repeat it one or more times.
ACS means that the result-set will be sorted in ascending order.
DESC means that the result-set will be sorted in descending order.
The default is ASC.

SQL ORDER BY Example

Table: Employees

Example 1
Select all the records from the table Employees and sort the result-set by salary:

SELECT *
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Salary

The result-set will look like:

Example 2
Select all the records from the table Employees, but sort the result-set descending by salary:

SELECT *
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Salary DESC

The result-set will look like:

Example 3
Select all the records from the table Employees and sort the result-set by salary, if salary is same, sort by last name:

SELECT *
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Salary, LastName

The result-set will look like: