Sorting sequence

The sequence for sorting character data in numeric order is:

1. Special characters, including blank
2. Lowercase letters, in alphabetic order
3. Uppercase letters, in alphabetic order
4. Numbers
5. NULL

The sequence for sorting numbers is ascending order. The sequence for sorting DATE, TIME, and TIMESTAMP values is chronological. The sequence for sorting DBCS data is determined by the internal value of the data and generally is not meaningful.

Examples:

• List employees in descending order by salary:

  SELECT ID, NAME, SALARY
  FROM Q.STAFF
  ORDER BY SALARY DESC

• List employees in ascending order by last name:

  SELECT ID, NAME, SALARY
  FROM Q.STAFF
  ORDER BY NAME