Python SQLite - ORDER BY Clause

Last Updated : 08 Dec, 2025

In this article, we will discuss ORDER BY clause in SQLite using Python. The ORDER BY statement is a SQL statement that is used to sort the data in either ascending or descending according to one or more columns. By default, ORDER BY sorts the data in ascending order.

DESC is used to sort the data in descending order.
ASC to sort in ascending order.

Syntax

SELECT column1,column2,., column n FROM table_name ORDER BY column_name ASC|DESC;

First, let's create a database.

Python

import sqlite3

# create connection to the database geeks_database
connection = sqlite3.connect('geeks_database.db')

# create table named address of customers with 4 columns id,name age and address
connection.execute('''CREATE TABLE customer_address
         (ID INT PRIMARY KEY     NOT NULL,
         NAME           TEXT    NOT NULL,
         AGE            INT     NOT NULL,
         ADDRESS        CHAR(50)); ''')

# close the connection
connection.close()

Output

Now, Insert 5 records into the customer_address table.

Python

import sqlite3

connection = sqlite3.connect('geeks_database.db')

connection.execute("INSERT INTO customer_address VALUES (1, 'nikhil teja', 22, 'hyderabad' )")
connection.execute("INSERT INTO customer_address VALUES (2, 'karthik', 25, 'khammam')")
connection.execute("INSERT INTO customer_address VALUES (3, 'sravan', 22, 'ponnur' )")
connection.execute("INSERT INTO customer_address VALUES (4, 'deepika', 25, 'chebrolu' )")
connection.execute("INSERT INTO customer_address VALUES (5, 'jyothika', 22, 'noida')")

connection.close()

Output

After creating the database and adding data to it let's see the use of order by clause.

Examples

Example 1: Display all details from the table in ascending order(default) based on address.

Python

import sqlite3

connection = sqlite3.connect('geeks_database.db')
cursor = connection.execute("SELECT * from customer_address ORDER BY address")

for i in cursor:
    print(i)

connection.close()

Output

sqlite-query-screenshot — Output in terminal

Example 2: Display address and id based on the address in descending order.

Python

import sqlite3

connection = sqlite3.connect('geeks_database.db')
cursor = connection.execute("SELECT ADDRESS,ID from customer_address ORDER BY address DESC")

for i in cursor:
    print(i)

connection.close()

Output

Example 3: Display name and id based on name in descending order

Python

import sqlite3

connection = sqlite3.connect('geeks_database.db')
cursor = connection.execute("SELECT NAME,ID from customer_address ORDER BY NAME DESC")

for i in cursor:
    print(i)

connection.close()