How to order by with union in SQL?

Solution 1:

Just write

Select id,name,age
From Student
Where age < 15
Union
Select id,name,age
From Student
Where Name like "%a%"
Order by name

the order by is applied to the complete resultset

Solution 2:

Select id,name,age
from
(
   Select id,name,age
   From Student
   Where age < 15
  Union
   Select id,name,age
   From Student
   Where Name like "%a%"
) results
order by name

Solution 3:

In order to make the sort apply to only the first statement in the UNION, you can put it in a subselect with UNION ALL (both of these appear to be necessary in Oracle):

Select id,name,age FROM 
(    
 Select id,name,age
 From Student
 Where age < 15
 Order by name
)
UNION ALL
Select id,name,age
From Student
Where Name like "%a%"

Or (addressing Nicholas Carey's comment) you can guarantee the top SELECT is ordered and results appear above the bottom SELECT like this:

Select id,name,age, 1 as rowOrder
From Student
Where age < 15
UNION
Select id,name,age, 2 as rowOrder
From Student
Where Name like "%a%"
Order by rowOrder, name