Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes, Fourth Edition

Lesson 3. Sorting Retrieved Data

In this lesson, 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 last lesson, 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 --------------------Fish bean bag toyBird bean bag toyRabbit bean bag toy8 inch teddy bear12 inch teddy bear18 inch teddy bearRaggedy AnnKing dollQueen doll

Actually, the retrieved data is not displayed in a mere random order. If unsorted, data will typically be displayed in the order in which it appears in the underlying tables. ...