Order By

The orderBy method seems simple but has a lot of depth depending on the type of arguments you pass in.

Calling orderBy multiple times appends to the order list.

Order By (String)

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

column

any

true

direction

string

false

"asc"

The direction by which to order the query. Accepts "asc"or "desc".

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .orderBy( "email" );
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`
ORDER BY `email` ASC

Calling orderBy multiple times will append to the order list.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .orderBy( "email" )
    .orderBy( "username", "desc" );
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`
ORDER BY
  `email` ASC,
  `username` DESC

You can also provide an Expression.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .orderBy( query.raw( "DATE(created_at)" ) );
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`
ORDER BY DATE(created_at)

Order By (List)

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

column

any

true

The list of the columns to order by. Each column can optionally declare it's sort direction after a pipe delimiter. (e.g. `"height

desc"`).

direction

string

false

"asc"

The direction by which to order the query. Accepts "asc"or "desc". This value will be used as the default value for all entries in the column list that fail to specify a direction for a specific column.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .orderBy( "email|asc,username", "desc" );
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`
ORDER BY
  `email` ASC,
  `username` DESC

Order By (Array of Strings)

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

column

any

true

The array of the columns to order by. Each column can optionally declare it's sort direction after a pipe delimiter. (e.g. `"height

desc"`).

direction

string

false

"asc"

The direction by which to order the query. Accepts "asc"or "desc". This value will be used as the default value for all entries in the column array that fail to specify a direction for a specific column.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .orderBy( [ "email|asc", "username" ], "desc" );
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`
ORDER BY
  `email` ASC,
  `username` DESC

Order By (Array of Structs)

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

column

any

true

The array of the columns to order by. Each column can optionally declare it's sort direction using a struct. The struct should have a column key and an optional direction key. (e.g. { column = "favorite_color", direction = "desc" }).

direction

string

false

"asc"

The direction by which to order the query. Accepts "asc"or "desc". This value will be used as the default value for all entries in the column array that fail to specify a direction for a specific column.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .orderBy( [
        { "column": "email", "direction": "asc" },
        "username"
    ], "desc" );
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`
ORDER BY
  `email` ASC,
  `username` DESC

Order By (Subquery)

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

column

any

true

direction

string

false

"asc"

Ignored when using a Function or QueryBuilder instance.

You can order with a subquery using either a function or a QueryBuilder instance.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .orderBy( function( q ) {
        q.selectRaw( "MAX(created_date)" )
            .from( "logins" )
            .whereColumn( "users.id", "logins.user_id" );
    } );
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`
ORDER BY (
    SELECT MAX(created_date)
    FROM `logins`
    WHERE `users`.`id` = `logins`.`user_id`
)

Order By Raw

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

expression

string

true

The raw SQL expression to use.

bindings

array

false

[]

Any bindings (?) used in the expression.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .orderByRaw( "CASE WHEN status = ? THEN 1 ELSE 0 END DESC", [ 1 ] );
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`
ORDER BY CASE WHEN status = ? THEN 1 ELSE 0 END DESC

clearOrders

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

No arguments

Clears the currently configured orders for the query. Usually used by downstream libraries like Quick.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .orderBy( "email" )
    .clearOrders();
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`

reorder

Name

Type

Required

Default

Description

column

any

true

direction

string

false

"asc"

The direction by which to order the query. Accepts "asc"or "desc".

Clears the currently configured orders for the query and sets the new orders passed in. Any valid argument to orderBy can be passed here. Usually used by downstream libraries like Quick.

QueryBuilder
query.from( "users" )
    .orderBy( "email" )
    .reorder( "username" );
MySQL
SELECT *
FROM `users`
ORDER BY `username` ASC

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