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Sorting

The server MAY support sorting of result sets by accepting a comma‐separated list of expressions via the sort query parameter. The server SHOULD honour the client's preferences.

By default the server SHOULD sort in ascending order but MAY sort in descending order if the client prefixes an expression with a dash (-).

NULL values MUST be treated as less than non-NULL values.

Items MUST be sorted according to the order of expressions provided. The first expression defines the primary sort order; for items with identical values in the first expression, the second expression defines the secondary order, and so on.

Examples of good practice

    GET /{base}/patients?sort=-lastName
    // 200 OK
    Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
    "data": {
        "patients": [
        {
            "NHSNumber": "9991234568",
            "firstName": "Bernard",
            "lastName": "Woolley",
            // ... other patient details ...
        },
        {
            "NHSNumber": "9991234567",
            "firstName": "Jim",
            "lastName": "Hacker",
            // ... other patient details ...
        },
        {
            "NHSNumber": "9991234566",
            "firstName": "Humphrey",
            "lastName": "Appleby",
            // ... other patient details ...
        }
        // ... more patients ...
        ]
    }
    }