Question

I want to make a custom order: IN, OUT, FINISHED.
If I left case statement I am getting in FINISHED, IN, OUT.
I found this solution but it does not work for me – I am getting error.

select  distinct 'IN' as STATUS,
(select count(*) ...)
from table

UNION ALL

select  distinct 'OUT',
(select count(*) ...)
from table

UNION ALL

select  distinct 'FINISHED',
(select count(*) ...)
from table

order by 
case STATUS
    when 'IN' then 1
    when 'OUT' then 2
    when 'FINISHED' then 3
end

Answer 1

The query that you provided has some syntax irregularities. I think the following solves your problem:

select *
from ((select distinct 'IN' as statusA, (select count(*) ...
       from table
      )
      union all
      (select distinct 'OUT',  (select count(*) ...)
       from table 
      )
      union all
      (select distinct 'FINISHED',  (select count(*) ...) 
       from table
      )
     ) t
order by status,
      (case STATUSA when 'IN' then 1
                    when 'OUT' then 2
                    when 'FINISHED' then 3
       end)

Your original problem could have several causes. You were missing the ‘IN’ in the first subquery. You are missing the comma after status in the order by. And, some databases apply the final order by in a series of unions to only the last query (although I think DB2 does this correctly).