PHP mysql_query() function is used to execute select query with order by clause. Since PHP 5.5, mysql_query() function is deprecated. Now it is recommended to use one of the 2 alternatives.

  • mysqli_query()
  • PDO::__query()

The order by clause is used to fetch data in ascending order or descending order on the basis of column.

Let’s see the query to select data from emp4 table in ascending order on the basis of name column.

SELECT * FROM emp4 order by name

Let’s see the query to select data from emp4 table in descending order on the basis of name column.

SELECT * FROM emp4 order by name desc

PHP MySQLi Order by Example

Example

 <?php
$host = ‘localhost:3306’;
$user = ”;
$pass = ”;
$dbname = ‘test’;
$conn = mysqli_connect($host, $user, $pass,$dbname);
if(!$conn){
  die(‘Could not connect: ‘.mysqli_connect_error());
}
echo ‘Connected successfully<br/>’;
$sql = ‘SELECT * FROM emp4 order by name’;
$retval=mysqli_query($conn, $sql);
if(mysqli_num_rows($retval) > 0){
 while($row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($retval)){
    echo “EMP ID :{$row[‘id’]}  <br> “.
         “EMP NAME : {$row[‘name’]} <br> “.
         “EMP SALARY : {$row[‘salary’]} <br> “.
         “——————————–<br>”;
 } //end of while
}else{
echo “0 results”;
}
mysqli_close($conn);
?>

Output:

Connected successfully
EMP ID :3 
EMP NAME : jai 
EMP SALARY : 90000 
--------------------------------
EMP ID :2 
EMP NAME : karan 
EMP SALARY : 40000 
--------------------------------
EMP ID :1 
EMP NAME : ratan 
EMP SALARY : 9000 
--------------------------------