In MySQL, the ORDER by keyword is used to get records from a table in sorted order. The ORDER BY keyword can use one or more columns to sort the result-set.

We can sort the records in both ascending and descending order.By default, ORDER by keyword sorts records in Ascending order. For descending order we need to use DESC keyword with the ORDER by keyword.

ORDER BY Syntax

SELECT column_name, column_name
FROM table_name
ORDER by column_name ASC|DESC, column_name ASC|DESC;

We have a table "employee" as below:

    employee

    id  first_name            last_name       country
    .......................................................
    1   John                     Simp         Canada
    2   Chris                    Hely         Canada
    3   Max                      Roy          Korea
    4   Jenny                    Mill         Canada
    5   Jack                     Simpson      London

ORDER BY Example

The below statement selects all the employees from the "employee" table sorted by "country column":

SELECT * FROM employee
ORDER by country;

Result

    id  first_name            last_name       country
    .......................................................
    1   John                     Simp         Canada
    2   Chris                    Hely         Canada
    4   Jenny                    Mill         Canada
    3   Max                      Roy          Korea
    5   Jack                     Simpson      London

ORDER BY DESC Example

he below statement selects all the employees from the "employee" table sorted in descending order by "country column":

SELECT * FROM employee
ORDER by country DESC;

Result

    id  first_name            last_name       country
    .......................................................
    5   Jack                     Simpson      London
    3   Max                      Roy          Korea
    1   John                     Simp         Canada
    2   Chris                    Hely         Canada
    4   Jenny                    Mill         Canada

Hope this will help you :)