ORDER BY multiple columns is used to sort the data at multiple levels from existing table.

ORDER BY multiple columns works with SELECT statement only.

SELECT column1, column2, …, columnN
      FROM table_name
      [ WHERE condition ]
      [ORDER BY column1, column2, …, columnN ASC | DESC]; 

• column1, column2, …, columnN - Specifies the column names used to fetch from table.
• table_name – specifies the name of the table.

Let us consider below table(s) as an example table(s) to frame the SQL query for getting the desired results.

Scenario – Fetch rows by sorting multiple rows in ascending and descending order.

Requirement – Fetch emp_name, designation, salary, dept_id details in ascending order of designation and descending order of salary. The query was as follows –

SELECT emp_name, designation, salary, dept_id FROM employee_details  
ORDER BY designation ASC, salary DESC; 

By executing above query, we can get results as shown below –

Scenario – Fetch rows by sorting multiple rows in ascending order.

Requirement – Fetch emp_name, designation, dept_id details in ascending order of designation and dept_id. The query was as follows –

SELECT emp_name,designation,designation,dept_id FROM employee_details 
ORDER BY designation,dept_id ASC; 

By executing above query, we can get results as shown below –

Scenario – Fetch rows by sorting multiple rows in descending order.

Requirement – Fetch emp_name, date_of_hire, salary details of employees whose dept_id is 2000 and descending order of date_of_hire, salary. The query was as follows –

SELECT emp_id, date_of_hire, salary FROM employee_details 
 WHERE dept_id = 2000 ORDER BY date_of_hire, salary DESC; 

By executing above query, we can get results as shown below –