Question

I have a mysql table for our customers. It works alphabetically with last names, but not with firstnames, because they are in different columns.

Here is my code:

SELECT id, firstname, lastname, address From customers Order by lastname

This is the result now:

lastname | firstname | address <br>
Ford     | Jhon      | Dallas
Bush     | Emil      | Orlando (This should be after the next one [Brian])
Bush     | Brian     | Los Angeles

How could I have Lastnames + firstnames in order together?

Answer 1

As stated in the manual:

You can sort on multiple columns, and you can sort different columns in different directions. For example, to sort by type of animal in ascending order, then by birth date within animal type in descending order (youngest animals first), use the following query:

mysql> SELECT name, species, birth FROM pet
    -> ORDER BY species, birth DESC;
+----------+---------+------------+
| name     | species | birth      |
+----------+---------+------------+
| Chirpy   | bird    | 1998-09-11 |
| Whistler | bird    | 1997-12-09 |
| Claws    | cat     | 1994-03-17 |
| Fluffy   | cat     | 1993-02-04 |
| Fang     | dog     | 1990-08-27 |
| Bowser   | dog     | 1989-08-31 |
| Buffy    | dog     | 1989-05-13 |
| Puffball | hamster | 1999-03-30 |
| Slim     | snake   | 1996-04-29 |
+----------+---------+------------+

The DESC keyword applies only to the column name immediately preceding it (birth); it does not affect the species column sort order.

Therefore, in your case:

SELECT id, firstname, lastname, address FROM customers ORDER BY lastname, firstname