Code / SQL with Data / Unit 3: Sorting and calculating

ORDER BY and LIMIT ORDER BY और LIMIT

Lesson 6 of 13 · about 12 minutes · Sort results, by one or many columns, and keep the top few.

⚡ 0 XP

Step 1 of 2

Sorting with ORDER BY

Without ORDER BY, a database may return rows in any order. To sort, add ORDER BY at the end:

ORDER BY runs or ORDER BY runs ASC — smallest first (A→Z for text)
ORDER BY runs DESC — biggest first

You can sort by several columns: ORDER BY team, runs DESC sorts by team A→Z, and inside each team by runs, highest first. The order of clauses is always: SELECT … FROM … WHERE … ORDER BY ….

Example

SELECT name, runs
FROM players
ORDER BY runs DESC;

🎯 Challenge: Team sheet +15 XP

Show name, team and runs of all players, sorted by team A→Z, and inside each team by runs from highest to lowest.

Try twice to unlock the solution (0/2)

query.sqlCtrl ⏎

Tables (practice database)

Results

Press Run to see your query’s rows here.

Checklist

Press Run to check your code.

Your rows match the expected answer, in the right order
Uses ORDER BY

Lesson notes (text version)

1. Sorting with ORDER BY

Without ORDER BY, a database may return rows in any order. To sort, add ORDER BY at the end:

ORDER BY runs or ORDER BY runs ASC — smallest first (A→Z for text)
ORDER BY runs DESC — biggest first

                SELECT name, runs
FROM players
ORDER BY runs DESC;

Challenge: Team sheet

Show name, team and runs of all players, sorted by team A→Z, and inside each team by runs from highest to lowest.

2. Top N with LIMIT

LIMIT 5 keeps only the first 5 rows of the result. Together with ORDER BY … DESC it answers every “top N” question:

SELECT name, runs FROM players ORDER BY runs DESC LIMIT 5;

LIMIT always comes last. Without ORDER BY, “the first 5 rows” could be any 5, so always sort first.

                SELECT name, runs
FROM players
ORDER BY runs DESC
LIMIT 5;

Challenge: Top 3 wicket-takers

Show name and wickets of the 3 players with the most wickets, highest first.