ORDER BY

The ORDER BY clause sorts query results.

Basic Sorting#

Ascending Order (Default)#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name, u.age
ORDER BY u.age

Descending Order#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name, u.age
ORDER BY u.age DESC

Explicit Ascending#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name, u.age
ORDER BY u.age ASC

Multiple Sort Columns#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.city, u.name, u.age
ORDER BY u.city, u.age DESC, u.name

This sorts by: 1. City (ascending) 2. Then age (descending) within each city 3. Then name (ascending) for same city and age

Sort by Expression#

Computed Values#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.firstName, u.lastName
ORDER BY u.firstName + ' ' + u.lastName

Function Results#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name, u.email
ORDER BY toLower(u.email)

Aggregations#

MATCH (u:User)-[:POSTED]->(p:Post)
RETURN u.name, count(p) AS posts
ORDER BY posts DESC

Sort by Relationship Properties#

MATCH (a:User)-[r:KNOWS]->(b:User)
WHERE a.name = 'Alice'
RETURN b.name, r.since
ORDER BY r.since DESC

Sort with Aliases#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name AS userName, u.age AS userAge
ORDER BY userAge DESC, userName

Null Handling#

NULL values sort to the end by default:

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name, u.age
ORDER BY u.age
// NULLs appear last

Descending order:

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name, u.age
ORDER BY u.age DESC
// NULLs appear first

Sort by Multiple Properties#

Primary and Secondary Sort#

MATCH (p:Post)
RETURN p.title, p.likes, p.created
ORDER BY p.likes DESC, p.created DESC

Mixed Ascending/Descending#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.country, u.city, u.name
ORDER BY u.country ASC, u.city DESC, u.name ASC

Sort with LIMIT#

MATCH (p:Post)
RETURN p.title, p.likes
ORDER BY p.likes DESC
LIMIT 10

Sort Aggregated Results#

Sort by Count#

MATCH (u:User)-[:POSTED]->(p:Post)
RETURN u.name, count(p) AS postCount
ORDER BY postCount DESC

Sort by Average#

MATCH (u:User)-[:POSTED]->(p:Post)
RETURN u.name, avg(p.likes) AS avgLikes
ORDER BY avgLikes DESC

Sort by Multiple Aggregations#

MATCH (u:User)-[:POSTED]->(p:Post)
RETURN u.name, 
       count(p) AS posts,
       avg(p.likes) AS avgLikes
ORDER BY posts DESC, avgLikes DESC

Case-Insensitive Sorting#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name
ORDER BY toLower(u.name)

Sort by Date/Time#

Recent First#

MATCH (p:Post)
RETURN p.title, p.created
ORDER BY p.created DESC

Oldest First#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name, u.joinedDate
ORDER BY u.joinedDate ASC

Sort by String Length#

MATCH (p:Post)
RETURN p.title
ORDER BY size(p.title) DESC

Sort by Array Size#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name, size(u.tags) AS tagCount
ORDER BY tagCount DESC

Common Patterns#

Top N Items#

MATCH (p:Post)
RETURN p.title, p.views
ORDER BY p.views DESC
LIMIT 10

Bottom N Items#

MATCH (p:Product)
RETURN p.name, p.sales
ORDER BY p.sales ASC
LIMIT 5

Most Active Users#

MATCH (u:User)-[:POSTED]->(p:Post)
RETURN u.name, count(p) AS posts
ORDER BY posts DESC
LIMIT 20

Recent Activity#

MATCH (u:User)-[:POSTED]->(p:Post)
RETURN u.name, p.title, p.created
ORDER BY p.created DESC
LIMIT 50

Alphabetical List#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name
ORDER BY u.name ASC

Leaderboard#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u.name, u.score
ORDER BY u.score DESC, u.name ASC

Timeline#

MATCH (e:Event)
RETURN e.description, e.timestamp
ORDER BY e.timestamp ASC

Performance Tips#

Create Indexes on Sorted Properties ```cypher CREATE INDEX ON :User(age)

// Fast sorting with index MATCH (u:User) RETURN u ORDER BY u.age ```

Limit Before Sorting When Possible cypher // If you only need top 10, use LIMIT ORDER BY u.age DESC LIMIT 10
Sort Early in Query ```cypher // Good: Sort before expensive operations MATCH (u:User) ORDER BY u.created DESC LIMIT 100 WITH u // ... more operations

// Bad: Sort after expensive operations MATCH (u:User) // ... expensive operations ORDER BY u.created DESC ```

Avoid Sorting Large Result Sets ```cypher // Good: Filter then sort MATCH (u:User) WHERE u.active = true RETURN u ORDER BY u.name

// Bad: Sort then filter MATCH (u:User) ORDER BY u.name WHERE u.active = true RETURN u ```

Sorting NULL Values#

Control NULL placement:

// NULLs last (default ascending)
ORDER BY u.age ASC

// NULLs first (default descending)  
ORDER BY u.age DESC

// Force NULLs to end
ORDER BY 
  CASE WHEN u.age IS NULL THEN 1 ELSE 0 END,
  u.age

Random Order#

MATCH (u:User)
RETURN u
ORDER BY rand()
LIMIT 10

Next Steps#

Limit results with LIMIT
Filter with WHERE
Return data with RETURN
Read Cypher Introduction

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