--- layout: doc_page --- # Sort groupBy Query Results The limitSpec field provides the functionality to sort and limit the set of results from a groupBy query. If you group by a single dimension and are ordering by a single metric, we highly recommend using [TopN Queries](../querying/topnquery.html) instead. The performance will be substantially better. Available options are: ### DefaultLimitSpec The default limit spec takes a limit and the list of columns to do an orderBy operation over. The grammar is: ```json { "type" : "default", "limit" : , "columns" : [list of OrderByColumnSpec], } ``` #### OrderByColumnSpec OrderByColumnSpecs indicate how to do order by operations. Each order-by condition can be a `jsonString` or a map of the following form: ```json { "dimension" : "", "direction" : <"ascending"|"descending">, "dimensionOrder" : <"lexicographic"(default)|"alphanumeric"|"strlen"|"numeric"> } ``` If only the dimension is provided (as a JSON string), the default order-by is ascending with lexicographic sorting. See [Sorting Orders](./sorting-orders.html) for more information on the sorting orders specified by "dimensionOrder".