Which clause sorts the result set by a specified column?

• A. ORDER BY NAME sorts the results by the NAME column
• B. GROUP BY NAME sorts the results by groups
• C. SORT BY NAME sorts the results
• D. ORDER NAME sorts the results

Answer: (A)

Sorting a result set in SQL is done with an ORDER BY clause. It arranges rows according to the values in a specified column, and by default this is in ascending order. In the example, ORDER BY NAME sorts the results by the NAME column, placing rows in alphabetical order (you can specify DESC for descending). GROUP BY NAME would not sort the entire result set; it groups rows by NAME instead. SORT BY NAME isn’t a standard SQL clause, and ORDER NAME is missing the required BY keyword. So the clause that sorts the result set by a specified column is ORDER BY NAME.