SQL ORDER BY Clause

The ORDER BY Clause in SQL is used with the select statement to sort the data in ascending order or descending order, based on one or more columns.

The ORDER BY keyword sorts the records in ascending order by default. To sort the records in descending order, use the DESC keyword.

Syntax

SELECT column1, column2
FROM table_name
ORDER BY column_name ASC;

• ASC → Ascending order (smallest to largest, A to Z)
• DESC → Descending order (largest to smallest, Z to A)
• ASC is the default if no direction is specified.

Example 1: Sort in Ascending Order

Suppose we have an Employees table:

ID	Name	Salary
1	Mayank	60000
2	Ayush	45000
3	Sakshi	75000
4	Shivansh	50000

SELECT *
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Salary ASC;

Result:

ID	Name	Salary
2	Ayush	45000
4	Shivnash	50000
1	Mayank	60000
3	Sakshi	75000

Example 2: Sort in Descending Order

SELECT *
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Salary DESC;

Result:

ID	Name	Salary
3	Sakshi	75000
1	Mayank	60000
4	Shivansh	50000
2	Ayush	45000

Example 3: Sort by Name

SELECT *
FROM Employees
ORDER BY Name ASC;

This sorts employee names alphabetically from A to Z.

ORDER BY with WHERE

ORDER BY can be used along with WHERE:

SELECT *
FROM Employees
WHERE Salary > 40000
ORDER BY Salary DESC;

This first selects employees earning more than 40,000 and then displays them from highest salary to lowest salary.