Term: DESC

Definition:
You can sort the results of a SQL query by any field in an ascending (ASC) or descending (DESC) order by using the 'ORDER BY' clause at the end of a query.

For example, if the users table contained the names "Frank Miller, Mary Anderson, Jane Wilson, and John Chatsworth", you could use this for results sorted in a descending order:

SELECT * FROM users 

ORDER_BY last_name DESC;

This would produce output like this:

Jane Wilson

Frank Miller

John Chatsworth

Mary Anderson

or you could use this for results sorted in an ascending order:

SELECT * FROM users 

ORDER_BY last_name ASC;

This would produce output like this:

Mary Anderson

John Chatsworth

Frank Miller

Jane Wilson

Related Links:

Oracle ORDER BY Clause: DESC

Related Code Snippets:

SQL*Plus Describe - Describe can be used in SQL*Plus to view tables, procedures, functions, packages.