SQL Data Analytics • Lesson 5

Sorting & Limiting Data

Learn how to organize query results using ORDER BY, choose a direction with ASC or DESC, and return only the rows you need with LIMIT or TOP.

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Concept 1ORDER BY

ORDER BY Sorts Results

By default, SQL does not guarantee the order of rows. ORDER BY lets you explicitly sort the result so the analysis is predictable and useful.

Interactive Data

Products table

We will use this Products dataset throughout the lesson to sort, predict and limit query results.

PRODUCTS

product_id	product	category	price
101	Laptop	Electronics	₹50,000
102	Mouse	Electronics	₹1,200
103	Chair	Furniture	₹8,000
104	Desk	Furniture	₹15,000
105	Keyboard	Electronics	₹2,500
106	Monitor	Electronics	₹18,000
107	Lamp	Furniture	₹900
108	Tablet	Electronics	₹22,000

Sort products by price

SELECT *

FROM Products

ORDER BY price;

ORDER BY price sorts the products from the lowest price to the highest price.

Unsorted

LaptopMouseChairDeskKeyboardMonitorLampTablet

ORDER BY price ASC

LampMouseKeyboardChairDeskMonitorTabletLaptop

Interactive Activity

Choose the product that appears first when sorting by price ascending.

Hint: Ascending order starts with the smallest value. Which product has the lowest price?

SQL Analyst Mindset

Sort first, then limit

Analysts use ORDER BY and LIMIT together to answer "top N" business questions: top customers, best-selling products, worst-performing regions, and more.

Understand

Which metric matters most?

Sort

Highest first or lowest first?

Limit

How many rows does the business need?

Validate

Do the rows answer the question?

Lesson Summary

What you learned

ORDER BY

Sort query results.

ASC / DESC

Choose sort direction.

LIMIT

Restrict the number of rows returned.

LIMIT vs TOP

Dialect differences between databases.

Frequently Asked Questions