Which identifier denotes descending order in a sort operation?

• A. DESC
• B. ORDER BY
• C. SORT
• D. ASC

Answer: (A)

In SQL, sort direction is specified after the column in an ORDER BY clause. The keyword DESC denotes descending order, so you sort from largest to smallest for numbers, newest to oldest for dates, or Z to A for text. This makes DESC the correct identifier for descending order. If no direction is given, many databases default to ascending order, and you can also use ASC to explicitly request ascending. You can apply different directions to multiple columns, for example ORDER BY date_col DESC, name_col ASC.