Question

I want to implement simple SQL query that will return a sorted list. The problem is that I get syntax errors for placing the ORDER BY clause anywhere I put it.

SELECT 
    fr.FunctionRoleID, fr.FunctionRoleInternalName
FROM 
    users u 
JOIN 
    UserRoles ur ON ur.UserID = u.UserID
JOIN 
    Roles_FunctionRoles rfr ON rfr.RoleID = ur.RoleID
JOIN 
    FunctionRoles fr ON fr.FunctionRoleID = rfr.FunctionRoleID 
WHERE 
    u.UserName = @UserName
    AND u.Active = 1

UNION 

SELECT 
    fr.FunctionRoleID, fr.FunctionRoleInternalName
FROM 
    Roles r
JOIN 
    Roles_FunctionRoles rfr ON rfr.RoleID = r.RoleID
JOIN 
    FunctionRoles fr ON fr.FunctionRoleID = rfr.FunctionRoleID
WHERE 
    r.RoleName = 'Authenticated Users'
    AND @UserName IS NOT NULL
    AND LEN(@UserName) > 0

What I want to insert:

ORDER BY fr.DisplayName ASC

EDIT

If I create a subquery using

SELECT * 
FROM 
     (
     [my initial query]
     )
ORDER BY 
    [COLUMN NAME] ASC

I get the following error message:

Incorrect syntax near ‘ORDER’. Expected ‘AS’, ‘ID’ or ‘QUOTED_id’

Answer 1

In most databases, you can only place an order by at the end of a union.

Because the union abstracts away individual table aliases, you only have to list the column name. So omit the fr. :

ORDER BY DisplayName