When should you use ORDER BY clause?

The ORDER BY clause in MySQL is used to sort the result set of a query based on one or more columns. It is particularly useful when you want to organize your data in a meaningful way, making it easier to analyze and present to end-users.

You should use the ORDER BY clause when:

  • You want to display data in a specific order, such as ascending or descending.
  • You need to sort data based on user preferences or requirements.
  • You are generating reports that require ordered data for better readability.
  • You want to facilitate searching and filtering by showing the most relevant results at the top.

Example:

<?php // Database connection $conn = new mysqli("localhost", "username", "password", "database"); // Check connection if ($conn->connect_error) { die("Connection failed: " . $conn->connect_error); } // SQL query with ORDER BY $sql = "SELECT name, age FROM users ORDER BY age DESC"; $result = $conn->query($sql); if ($result->num_rows > 0) { while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) { echo "Name: " . $row["name"]. " - Age: " . $row["age"]. "<br>"; } } else { echo "0 results"; } $conn->close(); ?>

ORDER BY MySQL sorting data SQL queries data presentation