Documentation

ORDER BY clause

This page documents an earlier version of InfluxDB OSS. InfluxDB 3 Core is the latest stable version.

Use the ORDER BY clause to sort data.

ORDER BY time DESC

By default, InfluxDB returns results in ascending time order; the first point returned has the oldest timestamp and the last point returned has the most recent timestamp. ORDER BY time DESC reverses that order such that InfluxDB returns the points with the most recent timestamps first.

Syntax

SELECT_clause FROM_clause [WHERE_clause] [GROUP_BY_clause] ORDER BY time DESC

If the query includes a GROUP BY clause, ORDER by time DESC must appear after the GROUP BY clause. If the query includes a WHERE clause and no GROUP BY clause, ORDER by time DESC must appear after the WHERE clause.

Examples

Return the newest points first

Return the newest points first and include a GROUP BY time() clause


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New in InfluxDB 3.5

Key enhancements in InfluxDB 3.5 and the InfluxDB 3 Explorer 1.3.

See the Blog Post

InfluxDB 3.5 is now available for both Core and Enterprise, introducing custom plugin repository support, enhanced operational visibility with queryable CLI parameters and manual node management, stronger security controls, and general performance improvements.

InfluxDB 3 Explorer 1.3 brings powerful new capabilities including Dashboards (beta) for saving and organizing your favorite queries, and cache querying for instant access to Last Value and Distinct Value caches—making Explorer a more comprehensive workspace for time series monitoring and analysis.

For more information, check out:

InfluxDB Docker latest tag changing to InfluxDB 3 Core

On November 3, 2025, the latest tag for InfluxDB Docker images will point to InfluxDB 3 Core. To avoid unexpected upgrades, use specific version tags in your Docker deployments.

If using Docker to install and run InfluxDB, the latest tag will point to InfluxDB 3 Core. To avoid unexpected upgrades, use specific version tags in your Docker deployments. For example, if using Docker to run InfluxDB v2, replace the latest version tag with a specific version tag in your Docker pull command–for example:

docker pull influxdb:2