Question

I am executing:

exec sp_who 
go

Is it possible to sort by a field like this?

exec sp_who order by dbname
go

How would I accomplish this?

Answer 1

You can accomplish this using OPENROWSET as per this question.

sp_configure 'Show Advanced Options', 1
GO
RECONFIGURE
GO
sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1
GO
RECONFIGURE
GO

SELECT * INTO #MyTempTable FROM OPENROWSET('SQLNCLI', 'Server=(local)\SQL2008;Trusted_Connection=yes;',
     'EXEC sp_who')

SELECT * FROM #MyTempTable order by [dbname]

If for whatever reason you are unable to use OPENROWSET then you will have to create a temp table that matches the output of sp_who exactly.

e.g

Create Table #temptable
(
spid smallint,
ecid smallint,
status varchar(100),
loginame varchar(100),
hostname varchar(100),
blk smallint,
dbname varchar(100),
cmd varchar(100),
request_id smallint
)

Insert Into #temptable
Exec sp_who

Select * From #temptable order by [dbname]