import GraphiQLIDE from '@site/src/components/GraphiQLIDE';

BigQuery: Sort Query Results

The order_by argument

Results from your query can be sorted by using the order_by argument. The argument can be used to sort nested objects too.

The sort order (ascending vs. descending) is set by specifying the asc or desc enum value for the column name in the order_by input object, e.g. {name: desc}.

By default, for ascending ordering null values are returned at the end of the results and for descending ordering null values are returned at the start of the results. null values can be fetched first on ascending ordering by specifying asc_nulls_first and last on descending ordering by specifying desc_nulls_last enum value e.g. {name: desc_nulls_last}.

The order_by argument takes an array of objects to allow sorting by multiple columns.

You can also use nested objects' fields to sort the results. Only columns from object relationships and aggregates from array relationships can be used for sorting.

You can see the complete specification of the order_by argument in the API reference.

The following are example queries for different sorting use cases:

Sorting objects

Example: Fetch a list of authors sorted by their names in an ascending order:

<GraphiQLIDE query={query { bigquery_authors ( order_by: {name: asc} ) { id name } }} response={{ "data": { "bigquery_authors": [ { "id": "5", "name": "Amii" }, { "id": "4", "name": "Anjela" }, { "id": "8", "name": "April" }, { "id": "2", "name": "Beltran" }, { "id": "7", "name": "Berti" }, { "id": "6", "name": "Corny" } ] } }} />

:::info Note

The query field will be of the format <dataset_name>_<table_name>.

:::

Sorting nested objects {#bq-nested-sort}

Example: Fetch a list of authors sorted by their names with a list of their articles that is sorted by their rating:

<GraphiQLIDE query={query { bigquery_authors (order_by: {name: asc}) { id name articles(order_by: {rating: desc}) { id title rating } } }} response={{ "data": { "bigquery_authors": [ { "id": "5", "name": "Amii", "articles": [ { "rating": "5", "id": "17", "title": "montes nascetur ridiculus" }, { "rating": "3", "id": "12", "title": "volutpat quam pede" }, { "rating": "2", "id": "4", "title": "vestibulum ac est" } ] }, { "id": "4", "name": "Anjela", "articles": [ { "rating": "4", "id": "3", "title": "amet justo morbi" }, { "rating": "1", "id": "1", "title": "sit amet" } ] }, { "id": "8", "name": "April", "articles": [ { "rating": "4", "id": "13", "title": "vulputate elementum" }, { "rating": "2", "id": "20", "title": "eu nibh" } ] } ] } }} />

Sorting based on nested object's fields

Only columns from object relationships and aggregates from array relationships can be used for sorting.

For object relationships

For object relationships only columns can be used for sorting.

Example: Fetch a list of articles that are sorted by their author's ids in descending order:

<GraphiQLIDE query={query { bigquery_articles ( order_by: {author: {id: desc}} ) { id rating published_on author { id name } } }} response={{ "data": { "bigquery_articles": [ { "id": "3", "title": "Article 3", "content": "Sample article content 3", "author": { "id": "2", "name": "Author 2" } }, { "id": "1", "title": "Article 1", "content": "Sample article content 1", "author": { "id": "1", "name": "Author 1" } }, { "id": "2", "title": "Article 2", "content": "Sample article content 2", "author": { "id": "1", "name": "Author 1" } } ] } }} />

For array relationships

For array relationships only aggregates can be used for sorting.

Example: Fetch a list of authors sorted in descending order of their article count:

<GraphiQLIDE query={query { bigquery_authors ( order_by: { articles_aggregate: {count: desc} } ) { id name articles_aggregate { aggregate{ count } } } }} response={{ "data": { "bigquery_authors": [ { "id": "5", "name": "Amii", "articles_aggregate":{ "aggregate": { "count": "3" } } }, { "id": "4", "name": "Anjela", "articles_aggregate":{ "aggregate": { "count": "2" } } }, { "id": "8", "name": "April", "articles_aggregate":{ "aggregate": { "count": "2" } } } ] } }} />

Example: Fetch a list of authors sorted in increasing order of their highest article rating:

<GraphiQLIDE query={query { bigquery_authors( order_by: { articles_aggregate: { max: {rating: asc_nulls_last} } } ) { id name articles_aggregate { aggregate{ max {rating} } } } }} response={{ "data": { "bigquery_authors": [ { "id": "7", "name": "Berti", "articles_aggregate": { "aggregate": { "max": { "rating": "2" } } } }, { "id": "2", "name": "Beltran", "articles_aggregate": { "aggregate": { "max": { "rating": "3" } } } }, { "id": "8", "name": "April", "articles_aggregate": { "aggregate": { "max": { "rating": "4" } } } }, { "id": "3", "name": "Sidney", "articles_aggregate": { "aggregate": { "max": { "rating": "4" } } } }, { "id": "5", "name": "Amii", "articles_aggregate": { "aggregate": { "max": { "rating": "5" } } } }, { "id": "9", "name": "Ninnetta", "articles_aggregate": { "aggregate": { "max": { "rating": null } } } } ] } }} />

Sorting by multiple fields

Example: Fetch a list of articles that is sorted by their rating (descending) and then on their published date (ascending with nulls first):

<GraphiQLIDE query={query { bigquery_articles ( order_by: [ {rating: desc}, {published_on: asc_nulls_first} ] ) { id rating published_on } }} response={{ "data": { "bigquery_articles": [ { "id": "17", "rating": "5", "published_on": null }, { "id": "14", "rating": "4", "published_on": null }, { "id": "7", "rating": "4", "published_on": "2016-07-09" }, { "id": "3", "rating": "4", "published_on": "2017-05-26" } ] } }} />