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    Sort Query Results

    Order by field value

    • Use orderBy or orderByDescending to order the results by the specified document-field.

    const products = await session
     // Make a dynamic query on the 'products' collection    
    .query({ collection: "products" })
     // Apply filtering (optional)
    .whereGreaterThan("UnitsInStock", 10)
     // Call 'orderBy'
     // Pass the document-field by which to order the results and the ordering type
    .orderBy("UnitsInStock", "Long")
    .all(); 

// Results will be sorted by the 'UnitsInStock' value in ascending order,
// with smaller values listed first.
    from "Products"
where UnitsInStock > 10
order by UnitsInStock as long

    Ordering Type:

    • If no ordering type is specified in the query then the server will apply the default lexicographical ordering.

    • In the above example, the ordering type was set to Long.

    • Different ordering can be forced - see Force ordering type below.

    Order by score

    • When querying with some filtering conditions, a basic score is calculated for each item in the results
      by the underlying indexing engine. (Read more about Lucene scoring here).

    • The higher the score value the better the match.

    • Use orderByScore or orderByScoreDescending to order by this score.

    const products = await session
    .query({ collection: "products" })
     // Apply filtering
    .whereLessThan("UnitsInStock", 5)
    .orElse()
    .whereEquals("Discontinued", true)
     // Call 'orderByScore'
    .orderByScore()
    .all();

// Results will be sorted by the score value
// with best matching documents (higher score values) listed first.
    from "Products"
where UnitsInStock < 5 or Discontinued == true
order by score()

    Get resulting score:

    • The score is available in the @index-score metadata property within each result.
      See how to get the resulting score from the metadata here.

    • To get the score details and see how it was calculated, you can request to include explanations in the query.
      See Include Query Explanations.

    Order by random

    • Use randomOrdering to randomize the order of the query results.

    • An optional seed parameter can be passed.

    const products = await session
    .query({ collection: "products" })
    .whereGreaterThan("UnitsInStock", 10)
     // Call 'randomOrdering'
    .randomOrdering()
     // An optional seed can be passed, e.g.:
     // .randomOrdering("someSeed")
    .all();

// Results will be randomly ordered.
    from "Products"
where UnitsInStock > 10
order by random()
// order by random(someSeed)

    Order by spatial

    • If your data contains geographical locations,
      spatial query results can be sorted based on their distance from a specific point.

    • See detailed explanation in Spatial Sorting.

    Order by count (aggregation query)

    • The results of a group-by query can be sorted by the count aggregation operation used in the query.

    const numberOfProductsPerCategory = await session
    .query({ collection: "products" })
     // Group by category
    .groupBy("Category")
    .selectKey("Category")
     // Count the number of product documents per category
    .selectCount()
     // Order by the count value
    .orderBy("count", "Long")
    .all();

// Results will contain the number of Product documents per category
// ordered by that count in ascending order.
    from "Products"
group by Category
order by count() as long
select key() as "Category", count()

    Order by sum (aggregation query)

    • The results of a group-by query can be sorted by the sum aggregation operation used in the query.

    const numberOfUnitsInStockPerCategory = await session
    .query({ collection: "products" })
     // Group by category
    .groupBy("Category")
    .selectKey("Category")
     // Sum the number of units in stock per category
    .selectSum(new GroupByField("UnitsInStock", "sum"))
     // Order by the sum value
    .orderBy("sum", "Long")
    .all();

// Results will contain the total number of units in stock per category
// ordered by that number in ascending order.
    from "Products"
group by Category
order by sum as long
select key() as 'Category', sum(UnitsInStock) as sum

    Force ordering type

    • If no ordering type is specified in the query then the server will apply the default lexicographical ordering.

    • A different ordering can be forced by passing the ordering type explicitly to orderBy or orderByDescending.

    • The following ordering types are available:

      • Long
      • Double
      • AlphaNumeric
      • String (lexicographic ordering)

    Using alphanumeric ordering example:

    • When ordering mixed-character strings by the default lexicographical ordering
      then comparison is done character by character based on the Unicode values.
      For example, "Abc9" will come after "Abc10" since 9 is greater than 1.

    • If you want the digit characters to be ordered as numbers then use alphanumeric ordering
      where "Abc10" will result after "Abc9".

    const products = await session
    .query({ collection: "products" })
     // Call 'OrderBy', order by field 'QuantityPerUnit'
     // Pass a second param, requesting to order the text alphanumerically
    .orderBy("QuantityPerUnit", "AlphaNumeric")
    .all();
    from "Products"
order by QuantityPerUnit as alphanumeric

    // Running the above query on the NorthWind sample data,
// would produce the following order for the QuantityPerUnit field:
// ================================================================

// "1 kg pkg."
// "1k pkg."
// "2 kg box."
// "4 - 450 g glasses"
// "5 kg pkg."
// ...

// While running with the default Lexicographical ordering would have produced:
// ============================================================================

// "1 kg pkg."
// "10 - 200 g glasses"
// "10 - 4 oz boxes"
// "10 - 500 g pkgs."
// "10 - 500 g pkgs."
// ...

    Chain ordering

    • It is possible to chain multiple orderings in the query.
      Any combination of secondary sorting is possible as the fields are indexed independently of one another.

    • There is no limit on the number of sorting actions that can be chained.

    const products = await session
    .query({ collection: "products" })
    .whereGreaterThan("UnitsInStock", 10)
     // Apply the primary sort by 'UnitsInStock'
    .orderByDescending("UnitsInStock", "Long")
     // Apply a secondary sort by the score
    .orderByScore()
     // Apply another sort by 'Name'
    .orderBy("Name")
    .all();

// Results will be sorted by the 'UnitsInStock' value (descending),
// then by score,
// and then by 'Name' (ascending).
    from "Products"
where UnitsInStock > 10
order by UnitsInStock as long desc, score(), Name

    Custom sorters

    • The Lucene indexing engine allows you to create your own custom sorters.
      Custom sorters can be deployed to the server by either:

    • Once the custom sorter is deployed, you can sort the query results with it.

    const products = await session
    .query({ collection: "products" })
    .whereGreaterThan("UnitsInStock", 10)
     // Order by field 'UnitsInStock', pass the name of your custom sorter class
    .orderBy("UnitsInStock", { sorterName: "MySorter" })
    .all();

// Results will be sorted by the 'UnitsInStock' value
// according to the logic from 'MySorter' class
    from "Products"
where UnitsInStock > 10
order by custom(UnitsInStock, "MySorter")

    Syntax 

    // orderBy overloads:
orderBy(field);
orderBy(field, ordering);
orderBy(field, options);

// orderByDescending overloads:
orderByDescending(field);
orderByDescending(field, ordering);
orderByDescending(field, options);
    Parameter Type Description
    field string The name of the field to sort by
    ordering string The ordering type that will be used to sort the results:
    Long
    Double
    AlphaNumeric
    String (default)
    options object An object that specifies the custom sorterName

    related articlesRelated Articles

    Client API

    Querying

    Indexes

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