sort operator
Applies to: ✅ Microsoft Fabric ✅ Azure Data Explorer ✅ Azure Monitor ✅ Microsoft Sentinel
Sorts the rows of the input table into order by one or more columns.
The
sortandorderoperators are equivalent
Syntax
T | sort by column [asc | desc] [nulls first | nulls last] [, ...]
Learn more about syntax conventions.
Parameters
| Name | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| T | string |
✔️ | The tabular input to sort. |
| column | scalar | ✔️ | The column of T by which to sort. The type of the column values must be numeric, date, time or string. |
asc or desc |
string |
asc sorts into ascending order, low to high. Default is desc, high to low. |
|
nulls first or nulls last |
string |
nulls first will place the null values at the beginning and nulls last will place the null values at the end. Default for asc is nulls first. Default for desc is nulls last. |
Returns
A copy of the input table sorted in either ascending or descending order based on the provided column.
Using special floating-point values
When the input table contains the special values null, NaN, -inf and +inf, the order will be as follows:
| Value | Ascending | Descending |
|---|---|---|
| Nulls first | null,NaN,-inf,-5,0,5,+inf |
null,NaN,+inf,5,0,-5 |
| Nulls last | -inf,-5,0,+inf,NaN,null |
+inf,5,0,-5,NaN,null |
Note
- Null and NaN values are always grouped together.
- The order between null and NaN values is determined by the first and last property because nulls and NaNs don't have an ascending and descending order.
Example
The following example shows storm events by state in alphabetical order with the most recent storms in each state appearing first.
StormEvents
| sort by State asc, StartTime desc
This table only shows the top 10 query results.
| StartTime | State | EventType | ... |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007-12-28T12:10:00Z | ALABAMA | Hail | ... |
| 2007-12-28T04:30:00Z | ALABAMA | Hail | ... |
| 2007-12-28T04:16:00Z | ALABAMA | Hail | ... |
| 2007-12-28T04:15:00Z | ALABAMA | Hail | ... |
| 2007-12-28T04:13:00Z | ALABAMA | Hail | ... |
| 2007-12-21T14:30:00Z | ALABAMA | Strong Wind | ... |
| 2007-12-20T18:15:00Z | ALABAMA | Strong Wind | ... |
| 2007-12-20T18:00:00Z | ALABAMA | Strong Wind | ... |
| 2007-12-20T18:00:00Z | ALABAMA | Strong Wind | ... |
| 2007-12-20T17:45:00Z | ALABAMA | Strong Wind | ... |
| 2007-12-20T17:45:00Z | ALABAMA | Strong Wind | ... |