Question

1)

declare @OrderBy varchar(100) = 'CompanyName'
declare @SortingOrder varchar(5) = 'desc'

Select * from [User] order by (@OrderBy + '  ' + @SortingOrder)

2)

Select * from [User] order by CompanyName desc

If I use the 2nd query then the result comes true (as I expected), but if I use the 1st query then result is not as expected.

I mean that the result set is displayed by ordering the company name in descending order.

What is the wrong in 1st query?
Someone please explain this.

thanks.

Answer 1

For query number 1, you can’t specify the column you want to order by dynamically the way you’re trying to do it. You could however build a sql string and execute it using EXEC:

declare @OrderBy varchar(100) = 'CompanyName'
declare @SortingOrder varchar(5) = 'desc'
declare @sql varchar(1000)
SET @sql = 'Select * from [User] order by ' + @OrderBy + ' ' + @SortingOrder
EXEC(@sql)

Or if you want to avoid dynamic SQL, you can use a CASE WHEN statement in your ORDER BY:

declare @OrderBy varchar(100) = 'CompanyName'
declare @so varchar(5) = 'desc'

SELECT * FROM [User] 
ORDER BY
  CASE WHEN @OrderBy = 'CompanyName' AND @so = 'desc' THEN CompanyName END DESC,
  CASE WHEN @OrderBy = 'CompanyName' AND @so <> 'desc' THEN CompanyName END