How To Sorting SQL Order BY Multiple Columns With Practical Example

Summary: in this tutorial, you will learn How To Sorting SQL Order BY Multiple Columns With Practical Example, to sort the result set of a query by one, two or Multiple columns.

Introduction To SQL ORDER BY Multiple Columns

SQL ORDER BY multiple columns is used when you need to sort the data at multiple levels from the existing table.
The clause ORDER BY multiple columns works with SELECT statement only.

Syntax:

• column_name1, column_name2, ….., columnN– It specifies the column names used to fetch from table
• table_name– It specifies the name of the table.

ORDER BY SQL Example

Let us understand How To Order BY Multiple Columns In SQL in SQL, first of all, consider the given below table(s) as example table(s) to frame the SQL query for getting the desired results.

Demo Table: Employee_Details

A) Scenario:- Let us fetch rows by sorting multiple rows in ASC (ascending) and DESC (descending) order.

Explanation:- Requirement- Fetch EmpName, Designation, Dept_Id, Emp_Salary details in ascending order of EmpName and descending order of Emp_Salary. The given below query as follows-

Output:

B) Scenario:- Let us fetch rows by sorting multiple rows in ASC (ascending) order.

Explanation:- Requirement- Fetch EmpName, Designation, Dept_Id, details in ascending order of EmpName and Dept_Id. The given below query as follows-

Output:

C) Scenario:- Let us fetch rows by sorting multiple rows in DESC (decending) order.

Explanation:- Requirement- Fetch EmpID, EmpName, Date_Of_Joining, Emp_Salary details of employees whose Dept_Id is 104 and descending order of Date_Of_Joining, Emp_Salary.

Output:

D) How to Order By Two Columns in SQL?

Explanation:- Here, you need to display the records from a given table (Employee_Details) sorted by two columns.
In our database has a table named Employee_Details with the following columns: EmpID, EmpName, Designation, ManagerId, Date_Of_Joining, Dept_Id, Emp_Salary.
Furthermore, let’s display all records for each employee but here we sort the records according to Emp_Salary in descending order first and then by EmpName in ascending order.

Thus, the above query returns sorted records according to two columns: Emp_Salary and EmpName.
Output:

Explanation:

you are free to select all columns records from a table (i.e. Employee_Details) but would like to see them sorted according to two columns i.e. Emp_Salary, EmpName you can do so with ORDER BY. as you can see in the SQL query this clause comes at the end.

After the ORDER BY keyword, add the column name by which you’d like to sort records first (in our example, Emp_Salary). Then, after comes a comma, add the 2nd column name (in our example, EmpName). You can modify the sorting order (ASC or DESC) separately for each column. If you want to use ascending (low to high) order, then you will be using the ASC keyword; this keyword is optional because it is the default order when none is specified. furthermore, if you like to use descending order, then you will be using the DESC keyword after the appropriate column (we used descending order for the Emp_Salary column).

In our demonstration, we 1st sorted the result by Emp_Salary in descending order (i.e. higher salaries to lower ones) and then by EmpName in ascending order within those already sorted records.

Conclusion:

In this article, you have learned How To Sorting SQL Order BY Multiple Columns With Practical Example to sort the result set of a query by one, two or Multiple columns. I hope you will enjoy it!