12-Order-By-Clause.md

THE ORDER BY CLAUSE

Definition

The output of an SQL query can be predicted, but the order in which the rows are displayed cannot be predicted.

If we want to display the output in a specific order, we use the ORDER BY clause.

The ORDER BY clause is used to sort the result set:

• ASC (Ascending Order) → Default order. Arranges values from smallest to largest or A to Z.
• DESC (Descending Order) → Arranges values from largest to smallest or Z to A.

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Question 1

Question

Write a query to display all the first names of employees in ascending order.

Query

SELECT f_name
FROM emp
ORDER BY f_name ASC;

Output

F_NAME
Adam
Akash
Andy
Ashwin
Braven
DEEP
Daniel
Janardhan
Jinnath
John
Madavan
Mamatha
Meghana
Mrudul
Pankaj
Prabhakaran
Sardhar
Savitha
Shashi

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Question 2

Question

Write a query to display the hire dates from the oldest date to the newest date.

Query

SELECT hire_date
FROM emp
ORDER BY hire_date ASC;

Output

HIRE_DATE
16-APR-07
27-SEP-08
25-OCT-08
30-DEC-08
23-FEB-10
23-APR-10
29-APR-10
30-APR-10
30-APR-10
24-JUN-10
25-JUL-10
25-AUG-10
15-DEC-10
27-FEB-11
28-MAY-11
29-MAR-12
19-APR-12
25-MAY-12
28-AUG-12

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Question 3

Question

Write a query to display salaries of employees in descending order.

Query

SELECT salary
FROM emp
ORDER BY salary DESC;

Output

SALARY
85000
55000
53000
53000
46000
45500
45000
39500
36000
34000
29500
29500
28500
25000
19500
18000
12000
12000
9500

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Question 4

Question

Write a query to display commission percentage in ascending order.

Query

SELECT commission_pct
FROM emp
ORDER BY commission_pct ASC;

Output

COMMISSION_PCT
.15
.2
.2
.3
.5
.75
.9
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.5
NULL
NULL

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Question 5

Question

Write a query to display commission percentage in descending order.

Query

SELECT commission_pct
FROM emp
ORDER BY commission_pct DESC;

Output

COMMISSION_PCT
NULL
NULL
1.5
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
1.2
.9
.75
.5
.3
.2
.2
.15