Question

I have a CTE Recursive query which returns the output as expected, however It would be nice if I can control the sort. For example I would like to sort PARENT nodes by using a custom SORT column in table…and IF POSSIBLE sort the nodes under Parent Categories as well by using a SORT column.

Hete is SQL Fiddle

Please look at sort Column, With Sort output should be something like this.

 Appliances < -- Parent
   Dryers
   Washers
 Toys < -- Parent
 Furniture < -- Parent

if sorting on child nodes is NOT possible then its fine, but it would be nice to atleast control the sort for PARENT nodes.

Answer 1

EDIT

Try this for the latest question/fiddle edit. Same idea, but one more ISNULL, as I forgot to handle NULL sorts in the recursive part.

;WITH cte AS (
    SELECT 0 AS lvl, catcode, catName, parentID,
        CAST(catCode AS VARCHAR(max)) AS Path,
        CAST(isnull(sort,9999) AS VARCHAR(max)) AS SortPath
    FROM categories WHERE parentID =0
    UNION ALL
    SELECT p.lvl + 1, c.catCode, c.catName, c.parentID,
        p.Path + '_' + CAST(c.catCode AS VARCHAR(max)),
        p.SortPath + '_' + CAST(isnull(c.sort,9999) AS VARCHAR(max))
    FROM categories c
    INNER JOIN cte p ON p.catCode = c.parentID
)
SELECT 
    catCode, 
    catName AS catName, 
    lvl,
    Path,
    parentID
FROM cte 
ORDER BY SortPath

Note: A single varchar(max) within a series of string concatenations makes the end result a varchar(max). A single cast will do.

FYI – for future SQL questions, it would be really great if you could prepare a SQLFiddle schema, and what query you have thus far. This allows others to spend minimal time on setup. It also helps the discussion if you had to expand on the sample or provide what if query variants.