Count and sort rows with a single MySQL query

Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable783 (
   FirstName varchar(100)
);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.65 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Adam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.17 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Chris');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Chris');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Adam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Adam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Robert');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Robert');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.22 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Adam');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable783 values('Chris');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable783;

This will produce the following output -

+-----------+
| FirstName |
+-----------+
| Adam      |
| Chris     |
| Chris     |
| Adam      |
| Adam      |
| Robert    |
| Robert    |
| Adam      |
| Chris     |
+-----------+
9 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to count and sort rows in MySQL −

mysql> select FirstName, count(*) from DemoTable783 group by FirstName order by count(*) desc;

This will produce the following output -

+-----------+----------+
| FirstName | count(*) |
+-----------+----------+
| Adam      | 4        |
| Chris     | 3        |
| Robert    | 2        |
+-----------+----------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)