Count and sort rows with a single MySQL query

Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable783 ( FirstName varchar(100) ); Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.65 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Adam'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Chris'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Chris'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Adam'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Adam'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Robert'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Robert'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.22 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Adam'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Chris'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable783;

This will produce the following output -

+-----------+ | FirstName | +-----------+ | Adam | | Chris | | Chris | | Adam | | Adam | | Robert | | Robert | | Adam | | Chris | +-----------+ 9 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to count and sort rows in MySQL −

mysql> select FirstName, count(*) from DemoTable783 group by FirstName order by count(*) desc;

This will produce the following output -

+-----------+----------+ | FirstName | count(*) | +-----------+----------+ | Adam | 4 | | Chris | 3 | | Robert | 2 | +-----------+----------+ 3 rows in set (0.00 sec)