| --- |
| layout: doc_page |
| --- |
| # Sort groupBy Query Results |
| The limitSpec field provides the functionality to sort and limit the set of results from a groupBy query. If you group by a single dimension and are ordering by a single metric, we highly recommend using [TopN Queries](../querying/topnquery.html) instead. The performance will be substantially better. Available options are: |
| |
| ### DefaultLimitSpec |
| |
| The default limit spec takes a limit and the list of columns to do an orderBy operation over. The grammar is: |
| |
| ```json |
| { |
| "type" : "default", |
| "limit" : <integer_value>, |
| "columns" : [list of OrderByColumnSpec], |
| } |
| ``` |
| |
| #### OrderByColumnSpec |
| |
| OrderByColumnSpecs indicate how to do order by operations. Each order-by condition can be a `jsonString` or a map of the following form: |
| |
| ```json |
| { |
| "dimension" : "<Any dimension or metric name>", |
| "direction" : <"ascending"|"descending">, |
| "dimensionOrder" : <"lexicographic(default)"|"alphanumeric"|"strlen"> |
| } |
| ``` |
| |
| If only the dimension is provided (as a JSON string), the default order-by is ascending. |
