import sqlite3 def collate_reverse(string1, string2): return -cmp(string1, string2) con = sqlite3.connect(":memory:") con.create_collation("reverse", collate_reverse) cur = con.cursor() cur.execute("create table test(x)") cur.executemany("insert into test(x) values (?)", [("a",), ("b",)]) cur.execute("select x from test order by x collate reverse") for row in cur: print row con.close()