<!DOCTYPE html><html lang="en"><head><meta charSet="utf-8"/><meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"/><title>Sorting (topN) · Apache Druid</title><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"/><link rel="canonical" href="https://druid.apache.org/docs/latest/querying/topnmetricspec.html"/><meta name="generator" content="Docusaurus"/><meta name="description" content="&lt;!--"/><meta name="docsearch:language" content="en"/><meta name="docsearch:version" content="0.23.0" /><meta property="og:title" content="Sorting (topN) · Apache Druid"/><meta property="og:type" content="website"/><meta property="og:url" content="https://druid.apache.org/index.html"/><meta property="og:description" content="&lt;!--"/><meta property="og:image" content="https://druid.apache.org/img/druid_nav.png"/><meta name="twitter:card" content="summary"/><meta name="twitter:image" content="https://druid.apache.org/img/druid_nav.png"/><link rel="shortcut icon" href="/img/favicon.png"/><link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/docsearch.js/1/docsearch.min.css"/><link rel="stylesheet" href="//cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/highlight.js/9.12.0/styles/default.min.css"/><script async="" src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=UA-131010415-1"></script><script>
              window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];
              function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments); }
              gtag('js', new Date());
              gtag('config', 'UA-131010415-1');
            </script><link rel="stylesheet" href="https://use.fontawesome.com/releases/v5.7.2/css/all.css"/><link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/code-block-buttons.css"/><script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/clipboard.js/2.0.4/clipboard.min.js"></script><script type="text/javascript" src="/js/code-block-buttons.js"></script><script src="/js/scrollSpy.js"></script><link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/main.css"/><script src="/js/codetabs.js"></script></head><body class="sideNavVisible separateOnPageNav"><div class="fixedHeaderContainer"><div class="headerWrapper wrapper"><header><a href="/"><img class="logo" src="/img/druid_nav.png" alt="Apache Druid"/></a><div class="navigationWrapper navigationSlider"><nav class="slidingNav"><ul class="nav-site nav-site-internal"><li class=""><a href="/technology" target="_self">Technology</a></li><li class=""><a href="/use-cases" target="_self">Use Cases</a></li><li class=""><a href="/druid-powered" target="_self">Powered By</a></li><li class="siteNavGroupActive"><a href="/docs/latest/design/index.html" target="_self">Docs</a></li><li class=""><a href="/community/" target="_self">Community</a></li><li class=""><a href="https://www.apache.org" target="_self">Apache</a></li><li class=""><a href="/downloads.html" target="_self">Download</a></li><li class="navSearchWrapper reactNavSearchWrapper"><input type="text" id="search_input_react" placeholder="Search" title="Search"/></li></ul></nav></div></header></div></div><div class="navPusher"><div class="docMainWrapper wrapper"><div class="docsNavContainer" id="docsNav"><nav class="toc"><div class="toggleNav"><section class="navWrapper wrapper"><div class="navBreadcrumb wrapper"><div class="navToggle" id="navToggler"><div class="hamburger-menu"><div class="line1"></div><div class="line2"></div><div class="line3"></div></div></div><h2><i>›</i><span>Native query components</span></h2><div class="tocToggler" id="tocToggler"><i class="icon-toc"></i></div></div><div class="navGroups"><div class="navGroup"><h3 class="navGroupCategoryTitle collapsible">Getting started<span class="arrow"><svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path fill="#565656" d="M7.41 15.41L12 10.83l4.59 4.58L18 14l-6-6-6 6z"></path><path d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path></svg></span></h3><ul class="hide"><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/index.html">Introduction to Apache Druid</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/index.html">Quickstart</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/docker.html">Docker</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/single-server.html">Single server deployment</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/cluster.html">Clustered deployment</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup"><h3 class="navGroupCategoryTitle collapsible">Tutorials<span class="arrow"><svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path fill="#565656" d="M7.41 15.41L12 10.83l4.59 4.58L18 14l-6-6-6 6z"></path><path d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path></svg></span></h3><ul class="hide"><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-batch.html">Loading files natively</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-kafka.html">Load from Apache Kafka</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-batch-hadoop.html">Load from Apache Hadoop</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-query.html">Querying data</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-rollup.html">Roll-up</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-retention.html">Configuring data retention</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-update-data.html">Updating existing data</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-compaction.html">Compacting segments</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-delete-data.html">Deleting data</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-ingestion-spec.html">Writing an ingestion spec</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-transform-spec.html">Transforming input data</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/tutorials/tutorial-kerberos-hadoop.html">Kerberized HDFS deep storage</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup"><h3 class="navGroupCategoryTitle collapsible">Design<span class="arrow"><svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path fill="#565656" d="M7.41 15.41L12 10.83l4.59 4.58L18 14l-6-6-6 6z"></path><path d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path></svg></span></h3><ul class="hide"><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/architecture.html">Design</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/segments.html">Segments</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/processes.html">Processes and servers</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/dependencies/deep-storage.html">Deep storage</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/dependencies/metadata-storage.html">Metadata storage</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/dependencies/zookeeper.html">ZooKeeper</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup"><h3 class="navGroupCategoryTitle collapsible">Ingestion<span class="arrow"><svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path fill="#565656" d="M7.41 15.41L12 10.83l4.59 4.58L18 14l-6-6-6 6z"></path><path d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path></svg></span></h3><ul class="hide"><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/index.html">Ingestion</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/data-formats.html">Data formats</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/data-model.html">Data model</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/rollup.html">Data rollup</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/partitioning.html">Partitioning</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/ingestion-spec.html">Ingestion spec</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/schema-design.html">Schema design tips</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/data-management.html">Data management</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/compaction.html">Compaction</a></li><div class="navGroup subNavGroup"><h4 class="navGroupSubcategoryTitle">Stream ingestion</h4><ul><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/kafka-ingestion.html">Apache Kafka ingestion</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/kafka-supervisor-reference.html">Apache Kafka supervisor</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/kafka-supervisor-operations.html">Apache Kafka operations</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/kinesis-ingestion.html">Amazon Kinesis</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup subNavGroup"><h4 class="navGroupSubcategoryTitle">Batch ingestion</h4><ul><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/native-batch.html">Native batch</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/native-batch-simple-task.html">Simple task indexing</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/native-batch-input-sources.html">Input sources</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/native-batch-firehose.html">Firehose</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/hadoop.html">Hadoop-based</a></li></ul></div><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/tasks.html">Task reference</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/faq.html">Troubleshooting FAQ</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup"><h3 class="navGroupCategoryTitle collapsible">Querying<span class="arrow"><svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path fill="#565656" d="M7.41 15.41L12 10.83l4.59 4.58L18 14l-6-6-6 6z"></path><path d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path></svg></span></h3><ul class="hide"><div class="navGroup subNavGroup"><h4 class="navGroupSubcategoryTitle">Druid SQL</h4><ul><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql.html">Overview and syntax</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql-data-types.html">SQL data types</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql-operators.html">Operators</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql-scalar.html">Scalar functions</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql-aggregations.html">Aggregation functions</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql-multivalue-string-functions.html">Multi-value string functions</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql-api.html">Druid SQL API</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql-jdbc.html">JDBC driver API</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql-query-context.html">SQL query context</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql-metadata-tables.html">SQL metadata tables</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sql-translation.html">SQL query translation</a></li></ul></div><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/querying.html">Native queries</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/query-execution.html">Query execution</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/troubleshooting.html">Troubleshooting</a></li><div class="navGroup subNavGroup"><h4 class="navGroupSubcategoryTitle">Concepts</h4><ul><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/datasource.html">Datasources</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/joins.html">Joins</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/lookups.html">Lookups</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/multi-value-dimensions.html">Multi-value dimensions</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/multitenancy.html">Multitenancy</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/caching.html">Query caching</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/using-caching.html">Using query caching</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/query-context.html">Query context</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup subNavGroup"><h4 class="navGroupSubcategoryTitle">Native query types</h4><ul><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/timeseriesquery.html">Timeseries</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/topnquery.html">TopN</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/groupbyquery.html">GroupBy</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/scan-query.html">Scan</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/searchquery.html">Search</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/timeboundaryquery.html">TimeBoundary</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/segmentmetadataquery.html">SegmentMetadata</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/datasourcemetadataquery.html">DatasourceMetadata</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup subNavGroup"><h4 class="navGroupSubcategoryTitle">Native query components</h4><ul><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/filters.html">Filters</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/granularities.html">Granularities</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/dimensionspecs.html">Dimensions</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/aggregations.html">Aggregations</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/post-aggregations.html">Post-aggregations</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/misc/math-expr.html">Expressions</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/having.html">Having filters (groupBy)</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/limitspec.html">Sorting and limiting (groupBy)</a></li><li class="navListItem navListItemActive"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/topnmetricspec.html">Sorting (topN)</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/sorting-orders.html">String comparators</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/virtual-columns.html">Virtual columns</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/geo.html">Spatial filters</a></li></ul></div></ul></div><div class="navGroup"><h3 class="navGroupCategoryTitle collapsible">Configuration<span class="arrow"><svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path fill="#565656" d="M7.41 15.41L12 10.83l4.59 4.58L18 14l-6-6-6 6z"></path><path d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path></svg></span></h3><ul class="hide"><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/configuration/index.html">Configuration reference</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions.html">Extensions</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/configuration/logging.html">Logging</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup"><h3 class="navGroupCategoryTitle collapsible">Operations<span class="arrow"><svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path fill="#565656" d="M7.41 15.41L12 10.83l4.59 4.58L18 14l-6-6-6 6z"></path><path d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path></svg></span></h3><ul class="hide"><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/druid-console.html">Web console</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/getting-started.html">Getting started with Apache Druid</a></li><div class="navGroup subNavGroup"><h4 class="navGroupSubcategoryTitle">Security</h4><ul><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/security-overview.html">Security overview</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/security-user-auth.html">User authentication and authorization</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/auth-ldap.html">LDAP auth</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/password-provider.html">Password providers</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/dynamic-config-provider.html">Dynamic Config Providers</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/tls-support.html">TLS support</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup subNavGroup"><h4 class="navGroupSubcategoryTitle">Performance tuning</h4><ul><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/basic-cluster-tuning.html">Basic cluster tuning</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/segment-optimization.html">Segment Size Optimization</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/mixed-workloads.html">Mixed workloads</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/http-compression.html">HTTP compression</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/clean-metadata-store.html">Automated metadata cleanup</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup subNavGroup"><h4 class="navGroupSubcategoryTitle">Monitoring</h4><ul><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/request-logging.html">Request logging</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/metrics.html">Metrics</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/alerts.html">Alerts</a></li></ul></div><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/api-reference.html">API reference</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/high-availability.html">High availability</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/rolling-updates.html">Rolling updates</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/rule-configuration.html">Retaining or automatically dropping data</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/other-hadoop.html">Working with different versions of Apache Hadoop</a></li><div class="navGroup subNavGroup"><h4 class="navGroupSubcategoryTitle">Misc</h4><ul><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/management-uis.html">Legacy Management UIs</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/dump-segment.html">dump-segment tool</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/reset-cluster.html">reset-cluster tool</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/insert-segment-to-db.html">insert-segment-to-db tool</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/pull-deps.html">pull-deps tool</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/deep-storage-migration.html">Deep storage migration</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/export-metadata.html">Export Metadata Tool</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/metadata-migration.html">Metadata Migration</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/use_sbt_to_build_fat_jar.html">Content for build.sbt</a></li></ul></div></ul></div><div class="navGroup"><h3 class="navGroupCategoryTitle collapsible">Development<span class="arrow"><svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path fill="#565656" d="M7.41 15.41L12 10.83l4.59 4.58L18 14l-6-6-6 6z"></path><path d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path></svg></span></h3><ul class="hide"><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/overview.html">Developing on Druid</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/modules.html">Creating extensions</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/javascript.html">JavaScript functionality</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/build.html">Build from source</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/versioning.html">Versioning</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/experimental.html">Experimental features</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup"><h3 class="navGroupCategoryTitle collapsible">Misc<span class="arrow"><svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path fill="#565656" d="M7.41 15.41L12 10.83l4.59 4.58L18 14l-6-6-6 6z"></path><path d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path></svg></span></h3><ul class="hide"><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/misc/papers-and-talks.html">Papers</a></li></ul></div><div class="navGroup"><h3 class="navGroupCategoryTitle collapsible">Hidden<span class="arrow"><svg width="24" height="24" viewBox="0 0 24 24"><path fill="#565656" d="M7.41 15.41L12 10.83l4.59 4.58L18 14l-6-6-6 6z"></path><path d="M0 0h24v24H0z" fill="none"></path></svg></span></h3><ul class="hide"><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/comparisons/druid-vs-elasticsearch.html">Apache Druid vs Elasticsearch</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/comparisons/druid-vs-key-value.html">Apache Druid vs. Key/Value Stores (HBase/Cassandra/OpenTSDB)</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/comparisons/druid-vs-kudu.html">Apache Druid vs Kudu</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/comparisons/druid-vs-redshift.html">Apache Druid vs Redshift</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/comparisons/druid-vs-spark.html">Apache Druid vs Spark</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/comparisons/druid-vs-sql-on-hadoop.html">Apache Druid vs SQL-on-Hadoop</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/auth.html">Authentication and Authorization</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/broker.html">Broker</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/coordinator.html">Coordinator Process</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/historical.html">Historical Process</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/indexer.html">Indexer Process</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/indexing-service.html">Indexing Service</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/middlemanager.html">MiddleManager Process</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/overlord.html">Overlord Process</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/router.html">Router Process</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/design/peons.html">Peons</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/approximate-histograms.html">Approximate Histogram aggregators</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/avro.html">Apache Avro</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/azure.html">Microsoft Azure</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/bloom-filter.html">Bloom Filter</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/datasketches-extension.html">DataSketches extension</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/datasketches-hll.html">DataSketches HLL Sketch module</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/datasketches-quantiles.html">DataSketches Quantiles Sketch module</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/datasketches-theta.html">DataSketches Theta Sketch module</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/datasketches-tuple.html">DataSketches Tuple Sketch module</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/druid-basic-security.html">Basic Security</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/druid-kerberos.html">Kerberos</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/druid-lookups.html">Cached Lookup Module</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/druid-ranger-security.html">Apache Ranger Security</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/google.html">Google Cloud Storage</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/hdfs.html">HDFS</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/kafka-extraction-namespace.html">Apache Kafka Lookups</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/lookups-cached-global.html">Globally Cached Lookups</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/mysql.html">MySQL Metadata Store</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/orc.html">ORC Extension</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/druid-pac4j.html">Druid pac4j based Security extension</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/parquet.html">Apache Parquet Extension</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/postgresql.html">PostgreSQL Metadata Store</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/protobuf.html">Protobuf</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/s3.html">S3-compatible</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/simple-client-sslcontext.html">Simple SSLContext Provider Module</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/stats.html">Stats aggregator</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/test-stats.html">Test Stats Aggregators</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/druid-aws-rds.html">Druid AWS RDS Module</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-core/kubernetes.html">Kubernetes</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/ambari-metrics-emitter.html">Ambari Metrics Emitter</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/cassandra.html">Apache Cassandra</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/cloudfiles.html">Rackspace Cloud Files</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/distinctcount.html">DistinctCount Aggregator</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/graphite.html">Graphite Emitter</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/influx.html">InfluxDB Line Protocol Parser</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/influxdb-emitter.html">InfluxDB Emitter</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/kafka-emitter.html">Kafka Emitter</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/materialized-view.html">Materialized View</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/momentsketch-quantiles.html">Moment Sketches for Approximate Quantiles module</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/moving-average-query.html">Moving Average Query</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/opentsdb-emitter.html">OpenTSDB Emitter</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/redis-cache.html">Druid Redis Cache</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/sqlserver.html">Microsoft SQLServer</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/statsd.html">StatsD Emitter</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/tdigestsketch-quantiles.html">T-Digest Quantiles Sketch module</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/thrift.html">Thrift</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/time-min-max.html">Timestamp Min/Max aggregators</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/gce-extensions.html">GCE Extensions</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/aliyun-oss.html">Aliyun OSS</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/development/extensions-contrib/prometheus.html">Prometheus Emitter</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/operations/kubernetes.html">kubernetes</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/hll-old.html">Cardinality/HyperUnique aggregators</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/querying/select-query.html">Select</a></li><li class="navListItem"><a class="navItem" href="/docs/latest/ingestion/standalone-realtime.html">Realtime Process</a></li></ul></div></div></section></div><script>
            var coll = document.getElementsByClassName('collapsible');
            var checkActiveCategory = true;
            for (var i = 0; i < coll.length; i++) {
              var links = coll[i].nextElementSibling.getElementsByTagName('*');
              if (checkActiveCategory){
                for (var j = 0; j < links.length; j++) {
                  if (links[j].classList.contains('navListItemActive')){
                    coll[i].nextElementSibling.classList.toggle('hide');
                    coll[i].childNodes[1].classList.toggle('rotate');
                    checkActiveCategory = false;
                    break;
                  }
                }
              }

              coll[i].addEventListener('click', function() {
                var arrow = this.childNodes[1];
                arrow.classList.toggle('rotate');
                var content = this.nextElementSibling;
                content.classList.toggle('hide');
              });
            }

            document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() {
              createToggler('#navToggler', '#docsNav', 'docsSliderActive');
              createToggler('#tocToggler', 'body', 'tocActive');

              var headings = document.querySelector('.toc-headings');
              headings && headings.addEventListener('click', function(event) {
                var el = event.target;
                while(el !== headings){
                  if (el.tagName === 'A') {
                    document.body.classList.remove('tocActive');
                    break;
                  } else{
                    el = el.parentNode;
                  }
                }
              }, false);

              function createToggler(togglerSelector, targetSelector, className) {
                var toggler = document.querySelector(togglerSelector);
                var target = document.querySelector(targetSelector);

                if (!toggler) {
                  return;
                }

                toggler.onclick = function(event) {
                  event.preventDefault();

                  target.classList.toggle(className);
                };
              }
            });
        </script></nav></div><div class="container mainContainer docsContainer"><div class="wrapper"><div class="post"><header class="postHeader"><a class="edit-page-link button" href="https://github.com/apache/druid/edit/master/docs/querying/topnmetricspec.md" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Edit</a><h1 id="__docusaurus" class="postHeaderTitle">Sorting (topN)</h1></header><article><div><span><!--
  ~ Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
  ~ or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
  ~ distributed with this work for additional information
  ~ regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
  ~ to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
  ~ "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
  ~ with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
  ~
  ~   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
  ~
  ~ Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
  ~ software distributed under the License is distributed on an
  ~ "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
  ~ KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
  ~ specific language governing permissions and limitations
  ~ under the License.
  -->
<blockquote>
<p>Apache Druid supports two query languages: <a href="/docs/latest/querying/sql.html">Druid SQL</a> and <a href="/docs/latest/querying/querying.html">native queries</a>.
This document describes the native
language. For information about sorting in SQL, refer to the <a href="/docs/latest/querying/sql.html#order-by">SQL documentation</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Apache Druid, the topN metric spec specifies how topN values should be sorted.</p>
<h2><a class="anchor" aria-hidden="true" id="numeric-topnmetricspec"></a><a href="#numeric-topnmetricspec" aria-hidden="true" class="hash-link"><svg class="hash-link-icon" aria-hidden="true" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Numeric TopNMetricSpec</h2>
<p>The simplest metric specification is a String value indicating the metric to sort topN results by. They are included in a topN query with:</p>
<pre><code class="hljs css language-json">"metric": "&lt;metric_name&gt;"
</code></pre>
<p>The metric field can also be given as a JSON object. The grammar for dimension values sorted by numeric value is shown below:</p>
<pre><code class="hljs css language-json">"metric": {
    "type": "numeric",
    "metric": "&lt;metric_name&gt;"
}
</code></pre>
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>property</th><th>description</th><th>required?</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>type</td><td>this indicates a numeric sort</td><td>yes</td></tr>
<tr><td>metric</td><td>the actual metric field in which results will be sorted by</td><td>yes</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h2><a class="anchor" aria-hidden="true" id="dimension-topnmetricspec"></a><a href="#dimension-topnmetricspec" aria-hidden="true" class="hash-link"><svg class="hash-link-icon" aria-hidden="true" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Dimension TopNMetricSpec</h2>
<p>This metric specification sorts TopN results by dimension value, using one of the sorting orders described here: <a href="/docs/latest/querying/sorting-orders.html">Sorting Orders</a></p>
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>property</th><th>type</th><th>description</th><th>required?</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>type</td><td>String</td><td>this indicates a sort a dimension's values</td><td>yes, must be 'dimension'</td></tr>
<tr><td>ordering</td><td>String</td><td>Specifies the sorting order. Can be one of the following values: &quot;lexicographic&quot;, &quot;alphanumeric&quot;, &quot;numeric&quot;, &quot;strlen&quot;. See <a href="/docs/latest/querying/sorting-orders.html">Sorting Orders</a> for more details.</td><td>no, default: &quot;lexicographic&quot;</td></tr>
<tr><td>previousStop</td><td>String</td><td>the starting point of the sort. For example, if a previousStop value is 'b', all values before 'b' are discarded. This field can be used to paginate through all the dimension values.</td><td>no</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>The following metricSpec uses lexicographic sorting.</p>
<pre><code class="hljs css language-json">"metric": {
    "type": "dimension",
    "ordering": "lexicographic",
    "previousStop": "&lt;previousStop_value&gt;"
}
</code></pre>
<p>Note that in earlier versions of Druid, the functionality provided by the DimensionTopNMetricSpec was handled by two separate spec types, Lexicographic and Alphanumeric (when only two sorting orders were supported). These spec types have been deprecated but are still usable.</p>
<h2><a class="anchor" aria-hidden="true" id="inverted-topnmetricspec"></a><a href="#inverted-topnmetricspec" aria-hidden="true" class="hash-link"><svg class="hash-link-icon" aria-hidden="true" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Inverted TopNMetricSpec</h2>
<p>Sort dimension values in inverted order, i.e inverts the order of the delegate metric spec. It can be used to sort the values in ascending order.</p>
<pre><code class="hljs css language-json">"metric": {
    "type": "inverted",
    "metric": &lt;delegate_top_n_metric_spec&gt;
}
</code></pre>
<table>
<thead>
<tr><th>property</th><th>description</th><th>required?</th></tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr><td>type</td><td>this indicates an inverted sort</td><td>yes</td></tr>
<tr><td>metric</td><td>the delegate metric spec.</td><td>yes</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</span></div></article></div><div class="docs-prevnext"><a class="docs-prev button" href="/docs/latest/querying/limitspec.html"><span class="arrow-prev">← </span><span class="function-name-prevnext">Sorting and limiting (groupBy)</span></a><a class="docs-next button" href="/docs/latest/querying/sorting-orders.html"><span>String comparators</span><span class="arrow-next"> →</span></a></div></div></div><nav class="onPageNav"><ul class="toc-headings"><li><a href="#numeric-topnmetricspec">Numeric TopNMetricSpec</a></li><li><a href="#dimension-topnmetricspec">Dimension TopNMetricSpec</a></li><li><a href="#inverted-topnmetricspec">Inverted TopNMetricSpec</a></li></ul></nav></div><footer class="nav-footer druid-footer" id="footer"><div class="container"><div class="text-center"><p><a href="/technology">Technology</a> · <a href="/use-cases">Use Cases</a> · <a href="/druid-powered">Powered by Druid</a> · <a href="/docs/latest/latest">Docs</a> · <a href="/community/">Community</a> · <a href="/downloads.html">Download</a> · <a href="/faq">FAQ</a></p></div><div class="text-center"><a title="Join the user group" href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/druid-user" target="_blank"><span class="fa fa-comments"></span></a> · <a title="Follow Druid" href="https://twitter.com/druidio" target="_blank"><span class="fab fa-twitter"></span></a> · <a title="Download via Apache" href="https://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi?path=/incubator/druid/{{ site.druid_versions[0].versions[0].version }}/apache-druid-{{ site.druid_versions[0].versions[0].version }}-bin.tar.gz" target="_blank"><span class="fas fa-feather"></span></a> · <a title="GitHub" href="https://github.com/apache/druid" target="_blank"><span class="fab fa-github"></span></a></div><div class="text-center license">Copyright © 2019 <a href="https://www.apache.org/" target="_blank">Apache Software Foundation</a>.<br/>Except where otherwise noted, licensed under <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>.<br/>Apache Druid, Druid, and the Druid logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of The Apache Software Foundation in the United States and other countries.</div></div></footer></div><script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/docsearch.js/1/docsearch.min.js"></script><script>
                document.addEventListener('keyup', function(e) {
                  if (e.target !== document.body) {
                    return;
                  }
                  // keyCode for '/' (slash)
                  if (e.keyCode === 191) {
                    const search = document.getElementById('search_input_react');
                    search && search.focus();
                  }
                });
              </script><script>
              var search = docsearch({
                
                apiKey: '2de99082a9f38e49dfaa059bbe4c901d',
                indexName: 'apache_druid',
                inputSelector: '#search_input_react',
                algoliaOptions: {"facetFilters":["language:en","version:0.23.0"]}
              });
            </script></body></html>