Fetch a specific record from a column with string values (string, numbers and special characters) in MySQL

For this, you can use ORDER BY CAST(). Let us see an example −

mysql> create table DemoTable2006
(
   UserId int NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
   UserCode    varchar(20)
);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.14 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable2006(UserCode) values('John_12');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.20 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable2006(UserCode) values('John_34');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable2006(UserCode) values('John_56');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable2006(UserCode) values('Chris_101');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable2006(UserCode) values('Chris_103');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.37 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable2006(UserCode) values('Chris_106');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.07 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select * from DemoTable2006;

This will produce the following output −

+--------+-----------+
| UserId | UserCode  |
+--------+-----------+
|      1 | John_12   |
|      2 | John_34   |
|      3 | John_56   |
|      4 | Chris_101 |
|      5 | Chris_103 |
|      6 | Chris_106 |
+--------+-----------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Here is the query to fetch a specific record from a column −

mysql> select * from DemoTable2006
   where UserCode like 'John%'
   order by cast(substring(UserCode from 7) as  signed) desc
   limit 1;

This will produce the following output −

+--------+----------+
| UserId | UserCode |
+--------+----------+
|      3 | John_56  |
+--------+----------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)