SELECT field1, field2,...fieldN table_name1, table_name2...
ORDER BY field1, [field2...] [ASC [DESC]]

root@host# mysql -u root -p password;
Enter password:*******
mysql> use TUTORIALS;
Database changed
mysql> SELECT * from tutorials_tbl ORDER BY tutorial_author ASC
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
| tutorial_id | tutorial_title | tutorial_author | submission_date |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
|      2 | Learn MySQL  | Abdul S     | 2007-05-24   |
|      1 | Learn PHP   | John Poul    | 2007-05-24   |
|      3 | JAVA Tutorial | Sanjay     | 2007-05-06   |
+-------------+----------------+-----------------+-----------------+
3 rows in set (0.42 sec)

mysql>

<?php
$dbhost = 'localhost:3036';
$dbuser = 'root';
$dbpass = 'rootpassword';
$conn = mysql_connect($dbhost, $dbuser, $dbpass);
if(! $conn )
{
 die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
$sql = 'SELECT tutorial_id, tutorial_title, 
        tutorial_author, submission_date
    FROM tutorials_tbl
    ORDER BY tutorial_author DESC';

mysql_select_db('TUTORIALS');
$retval = mysql_query( $sql, $conn );
if(! $retval )
{
 die('Could not get data: ' . mysql_error());
}
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($retval, MYSQL_ASSOC))
{
  echo "Tutorial ID :{$row['tutorial_id']} <br> ".
     "Title: {$row['tutorial_title']} <br> ".
     "Author: {$row['tutorial_author']} <br> ".
     "Submission Date : {$row['submission_date']} <br> ".
     "--------------------------------<br>";
} 
echo "Fetched data successfully\n";
mysql_close($conn);
?>