ORDER BY & SELECT TOP / LIMIT

ORDER BY sorts rows. ASC means ascending (A→Z, small→large). DESC means descending. Default is ASC if you omit it.

ORDER BY — sort results

ORDER BY sorts rows. ASC means ascending (A→Z, small→large). DESC means descending. Default is ASC if you omit it.

You can sort by multiple columns: first by grade_level, then by full_name inside each grade.

Real-life example: ORDER BY is like sorting exam papers — first by class, then by roll number inside each class.

Sort students by name and grade

SELECT full_name, grade_level, city
FROM students
ORDER BY grade_level ASC, full_name ASC;

SELECT full_name, grade_level
FROM students
ORDER BY grade_level DESC;

SELECT TOP / LIMIT — only first N rows

Sometimes you only want a few rows — top 5 scores or first 10 students alphabetically. SQL Server and MS Access use SELECT TOP n. MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite use LIMIT n at the end.

Combine ORDER BY with TOP or LIMIT to get 'highest' or 'lowest' rows, not random ones.

Real-life example: TOP/LIMIT is like reading only the first page of search results instead of all 10,000 matches.

Rishtaara examples use LIMIT unless noted. If you use SQL Server, swap LIMIT 5 for TOP 5 and move it right after SELECT.

SQL Server / Access style — TOP

-- SQL Server / Access
SELECT TOP 5 full_name, grade_level
FROM students
ORDER BY full_name;

MySQL / PostgreSQL / SQLite style — LIMIT

-- MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite
SELECT full_name, grade_level
FROM students
ORDER BY full_name
LIMIT 5;

-- Skip first 5, take next 5 (pagination)
SELECT full_name, grade_level
FROM students
ORDER BY full_name
LIMIT 5 OFFSET 5;