Question

I need to query a SQLite database for items that either match a given string, or are LIKE query%. However, it’s not as simple as

SELECT id, type, number FROM roads WHERE number = '12' OR number LIKE '12%'

I need all equal matches to come before the LIKE matches. I picture there being an AS in there somewhere and ordering by it, but I’m not sure how it would work. I want to avoid making two queries if possible.

Answer 1

I’m not sure if this syntax is supported on Sqlite, but here’s an idea:

SELECT id, type, number FROM roads WHERE number LIKE '12%'
ORDER BY
   CASE
      WHEN number = '12' THEN 0
      ELSE 1
   END