How to: Sort in Ascending or Descending Order

You can sort query results in ascending or descending order on one or more of the columns in the result set by using the ASC or DESC keywords with the ORDER BY clause.

Note

The sort order is determined in part by the column's collation sequence. You can change the collation sequence in the Collation Dialog Box.

The following procedure assumes that you have a query open in Query and View Designer that uses the ORDER BY clause to sort one or more columns.

Note

The dialog boxes and menu commands you see might differ from those described in Help depending on your active settings or edition. To change your settings, choose Import and Export Settings on the Tools menu. For more information, see Visual Studio Settings.

To specify or change the order in which results are sorted

  1. In the Criteria pane, click the Sort Type field for the column that you want to reorder.

  2. Choose Ascending or Descending to specify the sort order for the column.

Notice that as you work in the Criteria pane, your query's UNION clause changes to match your most recent actions.

Note

When sorting results by more than one column, specify the order in which columns are searched relative to each other by using the Sort Order column. For more information, see How to: Sort Multiple Columns in Queries.

See Also

Other Resources

Sorting and Grouping Query Results

Summarizing Query Results

Designing Queries and Views