How to Order Alphabetically in SQL

Written by Nicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: May 7, 2025 Fact Checked

This wikiHow teaches you how to use the ORDER BY clause in SQL to sort results from a table. The ORDER BY clause allows you to sort one or more columns in both ascending and descending order.

Alphabetical Order in SQL

Enter “Select,” then specify the table you want to order with “From [table_name}.” Then, enter “Order by [criteria].” If you don’t specify an order, your data will appear in alphabetical order (or you can enter “ASC”). To pull data in reverse alphabetical order, use “DESC” (for example, “Order by Name Desc”).

Steps

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This means we'll be looking at all columns. Move to the next line.^{[1]
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Replace table_name with the name of the table, and then move to the next line.^{[2]
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Enter ORDER BY criteria;. Here are some examples:^{[3]
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- For example, if you wanted to display results in alphabetical order based on a column called NAME, you'd use ORDER BY NAME;. Ascending order is the default sort order, but you could also specify that you want it ascending using ORDER BY NAME ASC; if you'd like.^{[4]
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- If you'd rather show the results in the opposite order, you'd use ORDER BY NAME DESC;. DESC means "descending order."^{[5]
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- If you want to sort based on two columns, separate them by commas. For example, ORDER BY LAST_NAME ASC, FIRST_NAME DESC; would display results sorted alphabetically by last name. If the same LAST_NAME matches multiple FIRST_NAME entries, the results of FIRST_NAME will also display in descending order.
You will now see your SQL results in the appropriate order.