Question

I have this query which might return multiple results. Is it possible to sort it and display in the following order: pending, failed, application, submitted, canceled ?

i.e sort by pa.status as above.

SELECT
  cl.id,cl.lead_id,cl.client_name,po.id,po.carrier,
  pa.downpayment_time,pa.status,pa.policy_id
FROM
  pdp_client_info AS cl,
  pdp_policy_info AS po,
  pdp_payment AS pa
WHERE
  cl.id = po.id AND po.id=pa.policy_id
 AND pa.downpayment_date = '$current_date'
 AND (pa.status='pending'
   OR pa.status='failed'
   OR pa.status='application'
   OR pa.status='submitted'
   OR pa.status='canceled')

Answer 1

Use the FIND_IN_SET function:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/string-functions.html#function_find-in-set

Code will look like this:

ORDER BY FIND_IN_SET(pa.status, 'pending,failed,application,submitted,canceled')

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Here is how I would rewrite your SQL query:

SELECT
  cl.id, cl.lead_id, cl.client_name, 
  po.id, po.carrier,
  pa.downpayment_time, pa.status, pa.policy_id
FROM
  pdp_client_info AS cl
  JOIN pdp_policy_info AS po ON (cl.id = po.id)
  JOIN pdp_payment AS pa ON (po.id = pa.policy_id)
WHERE
  (pa.downpayment_date = '$current_date')
  AND (pa.status IN ('pending', 'failed', 'application', 'submitted', 'canceled'))
ORDER BY
  FIND_IN_SET(pa.status, 'pending,failed,application,submitted,canceled')