Question

SELECT COALESCE (rsu.last_name + ', ' + rsu.first_name + ' ' + rsu.middle_name + '.', rsu.last_name + ', ' + rsu.first_name)  as student_name, rsu.day_id
FROM roster_school_unattended rsu
GROUP BY student_name
ORDER BY rsu.day_id

does not work. What’s the most elegant workaround?

EDIT: The result-set should have something like this

Muster, Hans | 2011-11-01
Muster, Hans | 2011-11-02
Williams, Clay | 2011-10-01
Williams, Clay | 2011-10-02

First the name is grouped by, then for each name there is a sorting of dates.

Answer 1

EDIT: Whole thing replaced as the recent edit to the question shows that GROUP BY isn’t needed…

Without any changes for ‘elegance’…

SELECT
  rsu.last_name + ', ' + rsu.first_name + COALESCE (' ' + rsu.middle_name + '.', '') as student_name,
  rsu.day_id
FROM
  roster_school_unattended  AS [rsu]
ORDER BY
  rsu.last_name + ', ' + rsu.first_name + COALESCE (' ' + rsu.middle_name + '.', ''),
  rsu.day_id

Possible change for ‘elegance’…

WITH formatted_rsu AS
(
  SELECT rsu.last_name + ', ' + rsu.first_name + COALESCE (' ' + rsu.middle_name + '.', '') as student_name, rsu.day_id
  FROM   roster_school_unattended  AS [rsu]
)
SELECT   student_name, day_id
FROM     formatted_rus
ORDER BY student_name, day_id

Another possible using APPLY…

SELECT      formatted_rsu.student_name, rsu.day_id
FROM        roster_school_unattended  AS [rsu]
CROSS APPLY (SELECT rsu.last_name + ', ' + rsu.first_name + COALESCE (' ' + rsu.middle_name + '.', '') as student_name) AS [formatted_rsu]
ORDER BY    formatted_rsu.student_name, rsu.day_id