BigQuery: Sort Query Results
The order_by argument
Results from your query can be sorted by using the order_by argument.
The argument can be used to sort nested objects too.
The sort order (ascending vs. descending) is set by specifying the asc
or desc enum value for the column name in the order_by input object,
e.g. {name: desc}.
By default, for ascending ordering null values are returned at the end
of the results and for descending ordering null values are returned at
the start of the results. null values can be fetched first on
ascending ordering by specifying asc_nulls_first and last on
descending ordering by specifying desc_nulls_last enum value e.g.
{name: desc_nulls_last}.
The order_by argument takes an array of objects to allow sorting by
multiple columns.
You can also use nested objects' fields to sort the results. Only columns from object relationships and aggregates from array relationships can be used for sorting.
You can see the complete specification of the order_by argument in the
API reference.
The following are example queries for different sorting use cases:
Sorting objects
Example: Fetch a list of authors sorted by their names in an ascending order:
The query field will be of the format <dataset_name>_<table_name>.
Sorting nested objects
Example: Fetch a list of authors sorted by their names with a list of their articles that is sorted by their rating:
Sorting based on nested object's fields
Only columns from object relationships and aggregates from array relationships can be used for sorting.
For object relationships
For object relationships only columns can be used for sorting.
Example: Fetch a list of articles that are sorted by their author's ids in descending order:
For array relationships
For array relationships only aggregates can be used for sorting.
Example: Fetch a list of authors sorted in descending order of their article count:
Example: Fetch a list of authors sorted in increasing order of their highest article rating:
Sorting by multiple fields
Example: Fetch a list of articles that is sorted by their rating (descending) and then on their published date (ascending with nulls first):