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How do you sort by multiple fields?

SQLJunior~1 min read
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To sort data by multiple fields, list several columns separated by commas after ORDER BY.

Syntax

sql
SELECT * FROM table_name ORDER BY field1 [ASC|DESC], field2 [ASC|DESC], field3 [ASC|DESC];

SQL sorts in the order the fields are listed: first by the first one, then within each group by the second, and so on.

Example

sql
SELECT name, department, salary FROM employees ORDER BY department ASC, salary DESC;

What happens:

  1. First, all rows are grouped by department, alphabetically (ASC);
  2. Within each department, employees are sorted by salary, from largest to smallest (DESC).

Another example

sql
SELECT city, last_name, first_name FROM clients ORDER BY city ASC, last_name ASC, first_name ASC;

First clients are sorted by city, then within that, by last name, and if the last name matches, by first name.

Summary: ORDER BY can contain several fields, SQL applies the sort sequentially, left to right. Each field can be sorted in its own direction (ASC or DESC).

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