Is it possible to sort varchar data in ascending order that have both string and number values with MySQL?


For this, you can use ORDER BY IF(CAST()). Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable(EmployeeCode varchar(100));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.17 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('190');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('100');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.30 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('John');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.23 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('120');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.21 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+--------------+
| EmployeeCode |
+--------------+
| 190          |
| 100          |
| John         |
| 120          |
+--------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to sort varchar data in ascending order with both string and number values −

mysql> select *from DemoTable
ORDER BY IF(CAST(EmployeeCode AS SIGNED) = 0, 100000000000, CAST(EmployeeCode AS SIGNED));

This will produce the following output. Here, numbers get sorted first −

+--------------+
| EmployeeCode |
+--------------+
| 100          |
| 120          |
| 190          |
| John         |
+--------------+
4 rows in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

Updated on: 22-Aug-2019

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