ORDER BY

The ORDER BY clause sorts the result set by one or more columns in ascending or descending order.

Syntax

SELECT <column> [, ...]
  FROM <relation_name>
 WHERE <condition>
 GROUP BY ...
 HAVING ...
 ORDER BY { <column> | <position> | <expression> } [ ASC | DESC ] [, ...]
 LIMIT ...;

Parameters

<column> — a column name or SELECT alias to sort by.
<position> — a 1-based index into the SELECT list, sorting by that column.
<expression> — a computed expression or function call to sort by.
ASC — ascending order (A to Z, smallest to largest). The default if omitted.
DESC — descending order (Z to A, largest to smallest).

Multiple sort keys, comma-separated, are evaluated left to right — the second key only breaks ties left by the first.

Examples

Single Column Sorting

SELECT id, name, created_at
  FROM users
 ORDER BY created_at DESC;

SELECT product_id, price, name
  FROM products
 ORDER BY price ASC;

Multiple Column Sorting

Sort by the first column, then by the second within groups of equal values:

SELECT category, name, price
  FROM products
 ORDER BY category ASC, price DESC;

Sorting by Column Position

Reference columns by their position in the SELECT list:

SELECT id, name, amount
  FROM orders
 ORDER BY 3 DESC;  -- Sort by third column (amount)

Sorting by Expressions

Sort by computed expressions or functions:

SELECT id, first_name, last_name
  FROM users
 ORDER BY LENGTH(first_name) DESC;

SELECT id, amount, created_at
  FROM orders
 ORDER BY EXTRACT(YEAR FROM created_at), amount DESC;

Sorting with Pagination

SELECT id, name, email
  FROM users
 ORDER BY created_at DESC
 LIMIT 10;

Complex Multi-Column Sort

SELECT 
  customer_id,
  order_date,
  amount
FROM orders
ORDER BY customer_id ASC, order_date DESC;

Sorting by Aggregates

SELECT 
  category,
  COUNT(*) AS count,
  SUM(amount) AS total
FROM products
GROUP BY category
ORDER BY total DESC;

Notes

ORDER BY is applied to the final result set, after WHERE, GROUP BY, and HAVING.
Ordering by SELECT aliases is supported, since ORDER BY runs after SELECT.
NULL values typically sort first (or last depending on the database).
Use column aliases or position numbers instead of full expressions for clarity.
Multiple sort keys are evaluated left to right.