Question

I have this query (simplified):

SELECT score FROM tbl WHERE id = xx ORDER BY score DESC;

And it works correctly. Now I add to this query an UNION like this:

(SELECT score FROM tbl WHERE id = x ORDER BY score DESC)
   UNION
(SELECT score FROM tbl WHERE id = y)

Now all the first result-set of the first query is messed up not respecting the ORDER BY score DESC

Answer 1

SELECT score FROM tbl WHERE id = x
UNION
SELECT score FROM tbl WHERE id = y

ORDER BY score DESC;

just add the order by to the end. it will apply to the entire result set. If you want to differentiate the result add an order col like so:

SELECT 1 as order_col, score FROM tbl WHERE id = x
UNION
SELECT 2 as order_col, score FROM tbl WHERE id = y

ORDER BY order_col ,score DESC;