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Asked: 2026-05-22T20:04:59+00:00

I have a MySQL database whose keys are of this type: A_10 A_10A A_10B

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I have a MySQL database whose keys are of this type:

A_10
A_10A
A_10B
A_101
QAb801
QAc5
QAc25
QAd2993

I would like them to sort first by the alpha portion, then by the numeric portion, just like above. I would like this to be the default sorting of this column.

1) how can I sort as specified above, i.e. write a MySQL function?
2) how can I set this column to use the sorting routine by default?

some constraints that might be helpful: the numeric portion of my ID’s never exceeds 100,000. I use this fact in some javascript code to convert my ID’s to strings concatenating the non-numeric portion with the (number + 1,000,000). (At the time I had not noticed the variations/subparts as above such as A_10A, A_10B, so I’ll have to revamp that part of my code.)

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The best way to achieve what you want is to store each part in its own column, and I would strongly recommend to change table structure. If it’s impossible, you can try the following:

    Create 3 UDFs which returns prefix, numeric part, and postfix of your string. For a better performance they should be native (Mysql, as any other RDMS, is not really good in complex string parsing). Then you can call these functions in ORDER BY clause or in trigger body which validates your column. In any case, it will work slower than if you create 3 columns.

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