Is there a default ORDER BY value in MySQL?

There is no default ORDER BY value in MySQL. You need to specify ORDER BY clause explicitly. Following is the syntax −

ORDER BY ASC;
OR
ORDER BY DESC;

Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
   -> (
   -> StudentName varchar(100)
   -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.82 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Sam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Chris');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('David');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.15 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Bob');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Robert');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.25 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

Output

This will produce the following output −

+-------------+
| StudentName |
+-------------+
| Sam         |
| Chris       |
| David       |
| Bob         |
| Robert      |
+-------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Case 1 − If you want the result in ascending order −

mysql> select *from DemoTable order by StudentName asc;

Output

This will produce the following output −

+-------------+
| StudentName |
+-------------+
| Bob         |
| Chris       |
| David       |
| Robert      |
| Sam         |
+-------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Case 2 − If you want the result in descending order −

mysql> select *from DemoTable order by StudentName desc;

Output

This will produce the following output −

+-------------+
| StudentName |
+-------------+
| Sam         |
| Robert      |
| David       |
| Chris       |
| Bob         |
+-------------+
5 rows in set (0.00 sec)