Build Your Own ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Using C# & VB, Second Edition

Ted Lindsey Ca

Shane Weebe Ca

David Levinson Ca

Geoff Kim Ca

(6 row(s) affected)

Sorting Results Using ORDER BY

Unless you specify some sorting criteria, SQL Server can’t guarantee to return

the results in a particular order. We’ll most likely receive the results sorted by

the primary key, because it’s easier for SQL Server to present the results in this

way than any other, but this ordering isn’t guaranteed. This explains why, in

some of the examples we’ve completed so far, the order of the results you see on

your machine may differ from what you see in this book. The ORDER BY clause

provides you with a quick way to sort the results of your query in either ascending

or descending order. For instance, to retrieve the names of your employees in

alphabetical order, you would need to execute this command:

SELECT EmployeeID, Name

FROM Employees

ORDER BY Name

Looks simple, doesn’t it?

EmployeeID Name

----------- --------------------------------------------------

5 David Levinson

6 Geoff Kim

2 Jessica Ruvalcaba

4 Shane Weebe

3 Ted Lindsey

1 Zak Ruvalcaba

(6 row(s) affected)

Note that the default ordering here is ascending (i.e. running from A to Z). You

could add the DESC designation (for descending) to the end of the statement, to

order the results backwards:

SELECT EmployeeID, Name

FROM Employees

ORDER BY Name DESC

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Chapter 8: Speaking SQL