Question

I have a SQL varchar column that has values like 100, 2000 and S5000. I want them ordered numerically rather than alphabetically. If there is a string character I am happy for the character to be either ignored or appear after the numeric values in the sort order.

In T-SQL I could this this with:

SELECT * FROM tbl
ORDER BY
  CASE
    WHEN ISNUMERIC(fld) = 1 THEN CONVERT(INT, fld)
    ELSE 2147483647
    END ASC,
  fld ASC

I am wondering if there is a way to do this in Linq to SQL?

Otherwise I guess my alternatives are to execute the query directly, or create a calculated column with values like 00000100, 00002000,000S5000, etc.

Edit: I have found a solution although I am not sure how efficient it is.

from s in q
orderby (SqlMethods.Like(s.fld, "%[^0-9]%") ? Int32.MaxValue : Convert.ToInt32(s.fld)) ascending, s.fld ascending
select s;

Answer 1

I have found a solution although I am not sure how efficient it is.

from s in q orderby (SqlMethods.Like(s.fld, "%[^0-9]%") ? Int32.MaxValue : Convert.ToInt32(s.fld)) ascending, s.fld ascending select s;