How to use Order by with Multiple columns in MySQL

The data is not displayed in any particular order when you simply fetch it from the MySQL table. For displaying data in some meaningful way ORDER BY clause is used.

This sorts your result on the basis of the column name specified in the clause within the SELECT query.

It allows us to –

• Specify ordering in single or multiple columns
• Define sort results in ASC or DESC format.

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Contents

1. Data Source
2. Order by
3. Using Order by multiple columns
4. Conclusion

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1. Data Source

I am using emp_salary table in the example that has the following data –

id	username	age	salary
1	yssyogesh	23	24000
2	sonarika	23	32000
3	akilesh	25	28000
4	anil	24	21000
5	ajay	21	22000
6	vijay	24	23000
7	sunil	23	22000

 

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2. Order by

This sorts your MySQL table result in Ascending or Descending order according to the specified column. The default sorting order is Ascending which you can change by using ASC or DESC.

Syntax –

SELECT * FROM [table-name] 
ORDER BY 
[column-name1 ] [ASC|DESC] ,  
[column-name2] [ASC|DESC],..

Example

SELECT * FROM emp_salary ORDER BY age

Or

SELECT * FROM emp_salary ORDER BY age asc

Here, I am arranging the result by age column and sorting it in ascending.

Output

id	username	age	salary
5	ajay	21	22000
1	yssyogesh	23	24000
2	sonarika	23	32000
7	sunil	23	22000
4	anil	24	21000
6	vijay	24	23000
3	akilesh	25	28000

 

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3. Using Order by multiple columns

Define your multiple column names in ORDER BY clause separated by a comma (,). You can also specify your sorting order ASC or DESC.

Example

SELECT * FROM emp_salary ORDER BY age ASC, salary DESC

In the above query, I am using order by in two columns –  age in ascending order and salary by descending order.

Output

id	username	age	salary
5	ajay	21	22000
2	sonarika	23	32000
1	yssyogesh	23	24000
7	sunil	23	22000
6	vijay	24	23000
4	anil	24	21000
3	akilesh	25	28000

 

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4. Conclusion

Order by clause is used with the SELECT query to arrange results in a specific order. You just need to separate your column names by the comma(,) when you are specifying multiple columns.

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