CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sqlmysql
mothorool
mothorool

Reputation:

how to reverse mysql table

I need to display what the table contains from the freshest data to the oldest. Something like this doesn't work: SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY DESC;. I know its becouse after ORDER BY should be name of the column. But I want to just reverse normal order (by normal I mean from the oldest to the freshest data). How to do this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 4268

Answers (6)

afftee
afftee

Reputation: 2341

if you have autoincremented ID's , so maybe

order by id desc ? :)

Upvotes: 0

Ray
Ray

Reputation: 21905

The physical ordering of the records in a table are not guaranteed to match the sequence in which they were created. To do this, you will need to find or create a field you can sort on. A 'create date' field, or perhaps an id value which increases as new records are added (like an order id or something).

Upvotes: 0

eduffy
eduffy

Reputation: 40224

You could create a new field of type timestamp and set the default value to CURRENT_TIMESTAMP, then then ORDER BY on that field.

Upvotes: 0

The Matt
The Matt

Reputation: 6636

You need to add a column for an insertion date or an incrementing key.

You can't rely on the physical storage pattern to give you a correct ordering. According to the MySQL documentation, there is no guarantee that rows returned will be in any particular order.

"...the result rows are displayed in no particular order. It is often easier to examine query output when the rows are sorted in some meaningful way. To sort a result, use an ORDER BY clause."

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/sorting-rows.html

Upvotes: 0

rsp
rsp

Reputation: 23373

In your query the DESC stands for descending, the reverse is ascending, or:

SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY column ASC;

btw, if you do not specify a column, what you call "normal order" really is random unless you specify an ordering.

Upvotes: 5

naivists
naivists

Reputation: 33511

The "normal order" is not always from oldest to freshest, since some records may be deleted and then these are replaced with the new ones. It means that the "natural order" may appear to be somewhat "random" with the freshest items being in the middle of the dataset.

Upvotes: 0

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