Question

I want to sort a table in sql server. Condition that i need to fulfill is this
I have a table that has some records in it like this

Select One
None
Child
Old
Neutral
..
..
..

i want it to be sorted in such a way that Select One comes up and None comes at the end and remaining gets sorted alphabetically.

Select One
Child
Neutral
Old
..
..
..
None

Is it possible some how to do this in any efficient manner. I have few other fields also associated with it. On behalf of these I want to get those values.
These fields are to be filled in comboboxes

I have to do this for 12 tables.

Answer 1

Try using a CASE in the ORDER BY like this:

SELECT...

    ORDER BY CASE
                 WHEN YourColumn='Select One' then 1
                 WHEN YourColumn='none' then 3
                 ELSE 2
              END,YourColumn

working example:

DECLARE @YourTable table (YourColumn varchar(20))
INSERT @YourTable VALUES ('Select One')
INSERT @YourTable VALUES ('None')
INSERT @YourTable VALUES ('Child')
INSERT @YourTable VALUES ('Old')
INSERT @YourTable VALUES ('Neutral')

SELECT * FROM @YourTable
ORDER BY CASE
             WHEN YourColumn='Select One' then 1
             WHEN YourColumn='none' then 3
             ELSE 2
          END,YourColumn

OUTPUT:

YourColumn
--------------------
Select One
Child
Neutral
Old
None

(5 row(s) affected)