3.1 — Sorting with ORDER BY

What You'll Learn

• How to sort data in SQL using ORDER BY
• Sorting ascending and descending
• Excel sorting vs. SQL sorting

From Excel to SQL: Sorting Data

In Excel, you click a column header to sort your data. In SQL, you use the ORDER BY clause.

Excel:
Sort the "Amount" column from largest to smallest.

SQL:

SELECT * FROM sales
ORDER BY Amount DESC;

• ORDER BY Amount sorts by the Amount column.
• DESC means descending (largest to smallest). Use ASC for ascending (default).

Sorting by Multiple Columns

You can sort by more than one column, just like Excel’s custom sort.

SELECT * FROM sales
ORDER BY Product ASC, Amount DESC;

• First sorts by Product (A-Z), then by Amount (largest to smallest) within each product.

Key Points

• Use ORDER BY to sort results.
• Add ASC (ascending) or DESC (descending) as needed.
• Multiple columns can be sorted in order.

Next Steps

Next, you’ll learn how to limit the number of results—just like scrolling through a few rows in Excel.