PostgreSQL Order By

Sorting Query Results

Without ORDER BY, PostgreSQL is free to return rows in whatever order is most efficient for the current query plan, which can vary between runs. ORDER BY guarantees a specific order by sorting on one or more columns, ascending by default or descending with the DESC keyword.

SELECT name, salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY salary DESC;

Sorting by Multiple Columns

You can list several sort keys separated by commas. PostgreSQL sorts by the first column, and only uses later columns to break ties among rows that share the same value in earlier columns. Each column can independently specify ASC or DESC.

SELECT name, department, salary
FROM employees
ORDER BY department ASC, salary DESC;

Sorting by Expression or Position

ORDER BY accepts computed expressions, not just column names, and PostgreSQL also lets you reference a column by its position in the SELECT list. NULL values need special handling: by default PostgreSQL sorts NULLs as larger than any other value in ascending order, which you can override with NULLS FIRST or NULLS LAST.

SELECT name, commission
FROM employees
ORDER BY commission DESC NULLS LAST;