ORDER BY & LIMIT

Bring a little order

Lesson 5 of 20 · 6 min · Module 2: Ask precise questions

Sorting makes patterns visible. Find the most active learners by ordering their XP from highest to lowest.

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By the end, you’ll be able to…

Sort numerically in descending order
Limit the number of result rows
Distinguish top results from arbitrary rows

The idea

ORDER BY xp DESC sorts in descending order. ASC sorts ascending. LIMIT keeps only a given number of rows.

SELECT name, xp FROM learners
ORDER BY xp DESC
LIMIT 3;

01Sort before taking the first rows

ORDER BY xp DESC arranges learners by highest XP first. LIMIT 2 then keeps the first two result rows. LIMIT alone does not mean highest or best.

02Consider ties in a real report

If several rows share the same XP, an additional ordering expression such as name can make their presentation deterministic. This dataset’s top scores are distinct.

Your turn

Select name and xp for the two learners with the most XP, highest first.

What the checks look for

Returns Lee then Sam, with their XP

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Take this with you

A top-N query needs both an ordering rule and a limit.