How to Sort SQL Results by Multiple Columns in Ascending and Descending Order?

Mastering Multi-Column Sorting in SQL: Ascending and Descending

SQL's ORDER BY clause is your key to organizing tabular data. But what if you need to sort by multiple columns, each in a different direction (ascending or descending)? This guide shows you how.

Sorting Columns in Opposite Directions

The secret lies in combining ORDER BY with the DESC (descending) and ASC (ascending) keywords. The syntax is straightforward:

<code class="language-sql">ORDER BY column1 DESC, column2 ASC</code>

This query sorts results descendingly by column1, and then, within each column1 group, ascendingly by column2.

Illustrative Example

Imagine this table:

Column1	Column2
A	10
B	5
C	15
D	5
E	20

To sort it descendingly by Column1 and then ascendingly by Column2, use this query:

<code class="language-sql">SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY Column1 DESC, Column2 ASC;</code>

The output would be:

Column1	Column2
E	20
C	15
B	5
D	5
A	10

Notice the two-stage sorting: Column1 is sorted descending (E, C, B, D, A), and then ties in Column1 are broken by ascending Column2 (20, 15, 5, 5, 10). This layered approach provides precise control over your result ordering.

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