---
id: sort
title: sort Search Operator
sidebar_label: sort
description: Use the sort operator to order aggregated search results in descending order by default.
slug: /help/docs/search/search-query-language/search-operators/sort/
canonical: https://www.sumologic.com/help/docs/search/search-query-language/search-operators/sort/
---

import useBaseUrl from '@docusaurus/useBaseUrl';

The `sort` operator orders aggregated search results. The default sort order is descending. Then you can use the top or limit operators to reduce the number of sorted results returned.

The `order` operator is synonymous with the `sort` operator. You can use them interchangeably in your queries.

## Syntax

`sort by <field> (displays results as descending, by default)`

`order by <field> (displays results as descending, by default)`

`sort by +<field> (displays results as ascending)`

`sort by <field> asc (displays results as ascending)`

`sort by <fieldA>, <fieldB>`

`top <#> <field>​​​​​​​ by <group_by_operator>`

## Rules

* Default sort order is descending.
* Sorting is case sensitive with lower-case followed by upper-case.
* To reverse the sort order to ascending, type a plus sign (+) before the field name you are sorting by. Alternatively, you can type **asc** after the field name.
* To numerically sort, first [cast the field to a number](/docs/search/search-query-language/search-operators/manually-cast-data-string-number). Otherwise, the sort will be ordered as a text field.

## Examples

```sumo
status AND down | extract "user=(?<user>.*?):" | count (*) group by user | sort by _count
```

```sumo
... | count user | top 2 user by _count
```

```sumo
... | count user | sort by _count asc
```

```sumo
| parse "GET * " as url | count by url | order by _count
| order by _count asc
```

### Top 10 pages by page hits

This example counts page hits by sourceHost, sorts them by page hits, and limits the results to the top 10.

```sumo
_sourceCategory=Labs/Apache/Access
| count as page_hits by _sourceHost
| sort by page_hits
| limit 10
```

which provides results like:

<img src={useBaseUrl('img/reuse/query-search/sort_operator_example.png')} alt="Sort" style={{border: '1px solid gray'}} width="300" />

For more information, see [Top](top.md) operator or [Limit](limit.md) operator.