12. Report-Writer Statements : Report Setup Statements : .Sort Statement--Specify Sort Order of Reported Data
 
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.Sort Statement--Specify Sort Order of Reported Data
The .sort statement specifies the ordering of rows to be reported.
The .sort statement has the following format:
.sort | .srt {columnname[:sortorder] {, columnname[:sortorder]}}
The parameters for the .sort statement are as follows:
columnname
The name of a column in the table to be reported, or the label for a column in the result column list of the specified query. You can express columnname as a delimited identifier by enclosing it in double quotes ("), if you have previously specified the .delimid statement.
The columnname can be expressed as a variable. The colon (:) and the comma (,) must be explicitly stated and cannot be part of the sortorder variable.
sortorder
Either ascending (also a or asc or ascend) or descending (also d or desc or descend), depending on how you want the rows to be ordered. If neither is specified, the default is ascending.
The sortorder can be expressed as a variable. The colon (:) and the comma (,) must be explicitly stated and cannot be part of the sortorder variable.
$columnvariable
The variable whose value is the name of a column. Precede the variable with a dollar sign ($).
$sortorder
The variable whose value is a sort order that evaluates to an acceptable sort direction. For more information, see the description of sortorder in this table. Precede the variable with a dollar sign ($).