Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

III.6.1. Using ORDER BY to Sort Your Results

Often, you need your data returned in a certain order, such as alphabetically or based on a number (say, sales figures). The only way to ensure your data is returned in a certain order is by using the ORDER BY clause within a SELECT statement.

The basic syntax of an ORDER BY clause is shown in the following code:

USE AdventureWorks2008;
GO
SELECT * from Person.Person
ORDER BY LastName

The ORDER BY clause follows the column list, the WHERE clause, and any joins in the SELECT statement. This returns an alphabetical listing of all the people in the Person.Contact table.

The following steps show you how to create and run a query with the ORDER BY clause. These steps assume you have AdventureWorks2008 installed on your system.

If you don't have the AdventureWorks2008 database installed on your system, download and install it before continuing. To find the file, go to the Microsoft CodePlex Web site (www.codeplex.com/MSFTDBProdSamples) and click the Releases tab. Full details on how to install AdventureWorks2008 is covered in Chapter 5 of this mini-book.

1. Launch SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).

   Choose StartAll ProgramsMicrosoft SQL Server 2008 ...