Hive - Difference between order by and sort by

Order by: the actual ordering of data is performed in a single node.

hive> select * from emp order by ename;

can use asc/ascending for ordering.

data will be order by ename ASCENDING by default.

hive> select * from emp order by ename desc/descending;

data will be order by ename DESCENDING.

Sort by: if data is stored across more than one node, partial sorting is done node wise, but it can't be 100% perfect sorting. Can use ascending/asc , descending/desc for ascending and descending sorting.

Following will display the data sorted by ename in ascending order. 

hive>select * from emp sort by ename asc;