javax.persistence

## Annotation Type OrderBy

    @Target(value={METHOD,FIELD})
     @Retention(value=RUNTIME)
    public @interface OrderBy

Specifies the ordering of the elements of a collection valued association or element collection at the point when the association or collection is retrieved.

The syntax of the `value` ordering element is an `orderby_list`, as follows:

        orderby_list::= orderby_item [,orderby_item]*
        orderby_item::= [property_or_field_name] [ASC | DESC]

If `ASC` or `DESC` is not specified, `ASC` (ascending order) is assumed.

If the ordering element is not specified for an entity association, ordering by the primary key of the associated entity is assumed.

The property or field name must correspond to that of a persistent property or field of the associated class or embedded class within it. The properties or fields used in the ordering must correspond to columns for which comparison operators are supported.

The dot (".") notation is used to refer to an attribute within an embedded attribute. The value of each identifier used with the dot notation is the name of the respective embedded field or property.

The `OrderBy` annotation may be applied to an element collection. When `OrderBy` is applied to an element collection of basic type, the ordering will be by value of the basic objects and the property or field name is not used. When specifying an ordering over an element collection of embeddable type, the dot notation must be used to specify the attribute or attributes that determine the ordering.

The `OrderBy` annotation is not used when an order column is specified.

        Example 1:

        @Entity
        public class Course {
           ...
           @ManyToMany
           @OrderBy("lastname ASC")
           public List<Student> getStudents() {...};
           ...
        }

        Example 2:

        @Entity
        public class Student {
           ...
           @ManyToMany(mappedBy="students")
           @OrderBy // ordering by primary key is assumed
           public List<Course> getCourses() {...};
           ...
        }

        Example 3:

        @Entity
        public class Person {
             ...
           @ElementCollection
           @OrderBy("zipcode.zip, zipcode.plusFour")
           public Set<Address> getResidences() {...};
           ...
        }

        @Embeddable
        public class Address {
           protected String street;
           protected String city;
           protected String state;
           @Embedded protected Zipcode zipcode;
        }

        @Embeddable
        public class Zipcode {
           protected String zip;
           protected String plusFour;
        }

See Also:
  `OrderColumn`
Since:
  Java Persistence 1.0

### Optional Element Summary

Optional Elements
`java.lang.String` `value` An `orderby_list`.

### Element Detail

#### value

    public abstract java.lang.String value

An `orderby_list`. Specified as follows:

        orderby_list::= orderby_item [,orderby_item]*
        orderby_item::= [property_or_field_name] [ASC | DESC]

If `ASC` or `DESC` is not specified, `ASC` (ascending order) is assumed.

If the ordering element is not specified, ordering by the primary key of the associated entity is assumed.

Default:
  ""