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Databases & SQL vocabulary · SQL Statements and Queries

ORDER BY

Meaning in databases & SQL, with examples

phraseCore term

In databases & SQL, ORDER BY means: The SQL clause that sorts the rows of a result by one or more columns, in ascending (ASC) or descending (DESC) order.

In Turkish: sıralama, ORDER BY ifadesi

How it is used

Written near the end of a SELECT: ORDER BY created_at DESC. Ascending is the default. Without ORDER BY the database does not promise any order, even if results look sorted. It is often used with LIMIT, TOP or FETCH FIRST to get the newest or largest rows.

Example sentences

  1. Add ORDER BY created_at DESC so the newest tickets appear first.

  2. The test passed locally but failed on CI because the query had no ORDER BY.

Common collocations

  • ORDER BY ... DESC
  • ORDER BY ... ASC
  • sort order
  • order by date
  • SELECT statementThe SQL statement that reads data from one or more tables and returns the matching rows without changing anything in the database.
  • GROUP BYThe SQL clause that puts rows with the same values into groups so that a total, count or average can be calculated for each group.
  • indexAn extra data structure built on one or more columns that lets the database find rows quickly without reading the whole table, like the index at the back of a book.
  • window functionA SQL function that calculates a value across a set of related rows, such as a running total or a rank, while still returning every individual row.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: SQL Statements and Queries

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