MySQL® Crash Course

Chapter 5. Sorting Retrieved Data

In this chapter, you will learn how to use the SELECT statement’s ORDER BY clause to sort retrieved data as needed.

Sorting Data

As you learned in the previous chapter, the following SQL statement returns a single column from a database table. But look at the output. The data appears to be displayed in no particular order at all.

• Input

SELECT prod_name
FROM products;

• Output

+----------------+
| prod_name      |
+----------------+
| .5 ton anvil   |
| 1 ton anvil    |
| 2 ton anvil    |
| Oil can        |
| Fuses          |
| Sling          |
| TNT (1 stick)  |
| TNT (5 sticks) |
| Bird seed      |
| Carrots        |
| Safe           |
| Detonator      |
| JetPack 1000   |
| JetPack 2000   |
+----------------+

Actually, the retrieved data is not displayed in a mere random order. If ...