Question

i want to sort an alphanumberic string…

sample string :

D12,D13
F19,F20
A12,A13
F10,F11
D14
A1,A2
A5,A6
D4,D5
F5,F6,F7

Desired Output :

A1,A2
A5,A6
A12,A13
D4,D5
D12,D13
D14
F5,F6,F7
F10,F11
F19,F20

HELP ME !!!!

Answer 1

Based on new requirements and loosely on @kuru kuru’s answer, I hope this order by clause demonstrates why normalization is a good thing. Just because it’s good for JSON and Ajax doesn’t mean it’s how you should treat your database:

DECLARE @t TABLE (x VARCHAR(32));

INSERT @t VALUES
  ('D12,D13'),
  ('F19,F20'),
  ('A12,A13'),
  ('F10,F11'),
  ('D14'),
  ('A1,A2'),
  ('A5,A6'),
  ('D4,D5'),
  ('F5,F6,F7'),
  ('AA1,AA2'),
  ('Z98,Z99');

SELECT x FROM @t
ORDER BY CASE 
    WHEN UPPER(x) LIKE '[A-Z][A-Z]%'
    THEN 'Z' + LEFT(x,2) ELSE LEFT(x,1) END,
    CONVERT(INT, 
      CASE WHEN x LIKE '%,%' THEN 
        SUBSTRING(x, PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', x), 
        CHARINDEX(',', x)-PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', x))
      ELSE 
        SUBSTRING(x, PATINDEX('%[0-9]%', x), 32)
      END
    );