MS SQL Server - ORDER BY clause

In this article, we would like to show you how to use ORDER BY clause in MS SQL Server.

Quick solution:

SELECT [column1], [column2], ...
FROM [table_name]
ORDER BY [column1], [column2], ... ASC|DESC;

Practical example

To show how the ORDER BY clause works, we will use the following table:

Note:

At the end of this article you can find database preparation SQL queries.

Example 1

In this example, we will sort users data by name.

Note:

By default ORDER BY clause sorts the data in ascending order.

Query:

SELECT * FROM [users] ORDER BY [name];

Output:

Example 2

In this example, we will sort users data by name in descending order.

Query:

SELECT * FROM [users] ORDER BY [name] DESC;

Output:

Database preparation

create_tables.sql file:

CREATE TABLE [users] (
	[id] INT IDENTITY(1,1),
	[name] VARCHAR(100) NOT NULL,
	[role] VARCHAR(15) NOT NULL,
	PRIMARY KEY ([id])
);

 insert_data.sql file:

INSERT INTO [users]
	([name], [role])
VALUES
	('John', 'admin'),
	('Chris', 'moderator'),
	('Kate', 'user'),
	('Denis', 'moderator');