Skip to content

Oracle ORDER BY Clause 📶

Mentor's Note: Data in a table is like a pile of laundry. ORDER BY is the process of folding it and putting it into neat drawers. Without this clause, Oracle does not guarantee any specific order! 💡

🌟 The Scenario: The Leaderboard 🏆

You are managing a sports academy. - Goal: You want to see the top scorers first. - Action: You sort the list by score in Descending order.

💻 1. Basic Syntax

SELECT column_name 
FROM table_name 
ORDER BY column_name [ASC | DESC];

Example: Sort by Salary (High to Low)

SELECT first_name, salary 
FROM employees 
ORDER BY salary DESC;

🏗️ Architect's Note: Nulls & Performance 🛡️

  1. NULLS FIRST/LAST: In Oracle, NULLs are treated as the "Largest" values. By default, they appear at the bottom in ASC order. You can change this! 
    ORDER BY commission_pct DESC NULLS LAST;
  2. Expensive Sorts: Sorting is one of the most resource-intensive operations in Oracle. It uses the TEMP tablespace. Avoid sorting millions of rows if you only need the Top 10!

📈 Learning Path