In Criteria API ordering can be applied by using following method of CriteriaQuery:

CriteriaQuery<T> orderBy(Order... o);

The instance of Order arguments can be created by following methods of CriteriaBuilder:

 Order asc(Expression<?> x);

Order desc(Expression<?> x);

Following code snippet applies order by (both asc and desc) to two columns:

  CriteriaBuilder cb = em.getCriteriaBuilder(); 
  CriteriaQuery<Employee> query = cb.createQuery(Employee.class);//create query object
  Root<Employee> employee = query.from(Employee.class);//create object representing 'from' part
  query.select(employee);//create 'select from' part
  query.orderBy(
        cb.asc(employee.get(Employee_.dept)),
        cb.desc(employee.get(Employee_.salary))
   );

Example

Entity

@Entity
public class Employee {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue
    private long id;
    private String name;
    private double salary;
    private String dept;
    .............
}

Using Criteria API to apply ordering

public class ExampleMain {
    private static EntityManagerFactory entityManagerFactory =
            Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("example-unit");

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        try {
            persistEmployees();
            findEmployeeOrderBySalary();
            findEmployeeOrderByDeptAndSalary();
        } finally {
            entityManagerFactory.close();
        }
    }

    public static void persistEmployees() {
        Employee employee1 = Employee.create("Diana", 2000, "IT");
        Employee employee2 = Employee.create("Rose", 3500, "Admin");
        Employee employee3 = Employee.create("Denise", 2500, "Admin");
        Employee employee4 = Employee.create("Mike", 4000, "IT");
        Employee employee5 = Employee.create("Linda", 4500, "Sales");
        EntityManager em = entityManagerFactory.createEntityManager();
        em.getTransaction().begin();
        em.persist(employee1);
        em.persist(employee2);
        em.persist(employee3);
        em.persist(employee4);
        em.persist(employee5);
        em.getTransaction().commit();
        em.close();
    }

    private static void findEmployeeOrderBySalary() {
        System.out.println("-- All employees order by salary --");
        EntityManager em = entityManagerFactory.createEntityManager();
        CriteriaBuilder cb = em.getCriteriaBuilder();
        CriteriaQuery<Employee> query = cb.createQuery(Employee.class);//query object
        Root<Employee> employee = query.from(Employee.class);//from part
        query.select(employee);//'select from' part
        query.orderBy(cb.desc(employee.get(Employee_.salary)));//order by part
        TypedQuery<Employee> typedQuery = em.createQuery(query);
        typedQuery.getResultList()
                  .forEach(System.out::println);
        em.close();
    }

    private static void findEmployeeOrderByDeptAndSalary() {
        System.out.println("-- All employees order by dept and salary --");
        EntityManager em = entityManagerFactory.createEntityManager();
        CriteriaBuilder cb = em.getCriteriaBuilder();
        CriteriaQuery<Employee> query = cb.createQuery(Employee.class);//query object
        Root<Employee> employee = query.from(Employee.class);//from part
        query.select(employee);//'select from' part
        query.orderBy(
                cb.asc(employee.get(Employee_.dept)),
                cb.desc(employee.get(Employee_.salary))
        );//order by part
        TypedQuery<Employee> typedQuery = em.createQuery(query);
        typedQuery.getResultList()
                  .forEach(System.out::println);
        em.close();
    }
}

-- All employees order by salary --
Employee{id=5, name='Linda', salary=4500.0, dept='Sales'}
Employee{id=4, name='Mike', salary=4000.0, dept='IT'}
Employee{id=2, name='Rose', salary=3500.0, dept='Admin'}
Employee{id=3, name='Denise', salary=2500.0, dept='Admin'}
Employee{id=1, name='Diana', salary=2000.0, dept='IT'}
-- All employees order by dept and salary --
Employee{id=2, name='Rose', salary=3500.0, dept='Admin'}
Employee{id=3, name='Denise', salary=2500.0, dept='Admin'}
Employee{id=4, name='Mike', salary=4000.0, dept='IT'}
Employee{id=1, name='Diana', salary=2000.0, dept='IT'}
Employee{id=5, name='Linda', salary=4500.0, dept='Sales'}

Example Project

Dependencies and Technologies Used:

• h2 1.4.197: H2 Database Engine.
• hibernate-core 5.3.2.Final: Hibernate's core ORM functionality.
  Implements javax.persistence:javax.persistence-api version 2.2
• hibernate-jpamodelgen 5.3.2.Final: Annotation Processor to generate JPA 2 static metamodel classes.
• JDK 1.8
• Maven 3.5.4