ORDER BY for the result of a UNION?

Question

I have two SELECT statements which are merged by a UNION ALL.
Ok, I could add an ORDER BY to each of the SELECTs but that would sort only the partial result lists.
How can I sort the whole result table (after the merge)?
Peter

Answer 1

putting the order by at the end of the last query.
SQL> select ename, sal from emp where sal>2000
  2  union all
  3  select ename, sal from emp where deptno=10;
ENAME             SAL
JONES            2975
BLAKE            2850
CLARK            2450
SCOTT            3000
KING             5000
FORD             3000
CLARK            2450
KING             5000
MILLER           1300
9 rows selected.
SQL> select ename, sal from emp where sal>2000
  2  union all
  3  select ename, sal from emp where deptno=10
  4  order by 2;
ENAME             SAL
MILLER           1300
CLARK            2450
CLARK            2450
BLAKE            2850
JONES            2975
SCOTT            3000
FORD             3000
KING             5000
KING             5000
9 rows selected.Max
[My Italian Oracle blog| http://oracleitalia.wordpress.com/2010/02/07/aggiornare-una-tabella-con-listruzione-merge/]