Question 8

An analyst would specify a descending order of data in SQL using ORDER BY followed by DESC.

In SQL, to sort query results in descending order, an analyst employs the ORDER BY clause followed by the DESC keyword.

A) ORDER BY followed by DESC

This option is correct because the ORDER BY clause is specifically designed to sort the result set of a query, and appending DESC indicates that the sorting should be in descending order.

B) FROM followed by database

This option is incorrect as the FROM clause is used to specify the table from which to retrieve data, not to sort the data. It does not provide any functionality for ordering results.

C) SORT followed by TRUE

This option is incorrect because SQL does not use the SORT keyword for ordering data. Additionally, TRUE is not a recognized parameter to specify sorting order in SQL.

D) FILTER followed by ASC

This option is incorrect as well. The FILTER keyword is not used in standard SQL for sorting data; instead, it is used in specific contexts such as aggregate functions. Furthermore, ASC denotes ascending order, which does not address the requirement for descending order.

Conclusion

The correct answer, A) ORDER BY followed by DESC, is the only option that accurately reflects the syntax used in SQL for sorting data in descending order. All other options fail to address the sorting requirement or misuse SQL syntax, confirming that A is definitively the right choice.