Question

I want to put a condtion to sort SQL data based on the value of derived columns as follows:

SELECT DISTINCT sp.ID
    , sp.Status
    , sp.Rank
    , sp.Price
    , sp.SalePrice
    , sp.Width
    , sp.Height
    , sp.QOH
    , (sp.SalePrice*sp.QOH) As 'sp.Value'
    , (sp.Price*sp.QOH) As 'sp.StandardValue'
FROM table 
WHERE -- Conditions
ORDER BY
  CASE WHEN 'sp.SalePrice' > 0 THEN 'sp.Value'  END DESC,
  CASE WHEN 'sp.SalePrice' = 0 THEN 'sp.StandardValue'  END DESC

Gves this error:

Msg 145, Level 15, State 1, Line 1
ORDER BY items must appear in the select list if SELECT DISTINCT is specified.

if i try

ORDER BY
  CASE WHEN sp.SalePrice > 0 THEN (sp.SalePrice*sp.QOH) As "sp.Value"  END DESC,
  CASE WHEN sp.SalePrice = 0 THEN (sp.Price*sp.QOH) As sp.StandardValue" END DESC

Gives error:

Incorrect syntax near the keyword ‘As’.

it starts giving the same select distinct error if i try to remove aliases * as from order by cluase & only leave the multiplication part

Answer 1

Your second example is closest as it specifies the columns correctly. However, you cannot alias columns in the order by. This would work:

ORDER BY
  CASE WHEN sp.SalePrice > 0 THEN sp.SalePrice*sp.QOH END DESC,
  CASE WHEN sp.SalePrice = 0 THEN sp.Price*sp.QOH END DESC

Or alternatively just use the alias you defined in the result set:

ORDER BY
  CASE WHEN sp.SalePrice > 0 THEN [sp.Value] END DESC,
  CASE WHEN sp.SalePrice = 0 THEN [sp.StandardValue] END DESC

Note the brackets []…. this is required to define the column name as you used a dotted name in the alias… otherwise sp.Value would be considered to be the Value column in the sp table.