Let us first create a table &miuns;
mysql> create table DemoTable -> ( -> FirstName varchar(100), -> LastName varchar(100) -> ); Query OK, 0 rows affected (1.39 sec)
Insert some records in the table using insert command −
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Sam','Brown');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.25 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(null,'Smith');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('David','Taylor');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.22 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Mike',null);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.45 sec)Display all records from the table using select statement −
mysql> select *from DemoTable;
This will produce the following output −
+-----------+----------+ | FirstName | LastName | +-----------+----------+ | Sam | Brown | | NULL | Smith | | David | Taylor | | Mike | NULL | +-----------+----------+ 4 rows in set (0.06 sec)
Here is the query to order by two fields and possibly NULL values in chronological order −
mysql> select *from DemoTable order by coalesce(FirstName,LastName);
This will produce the following output −
+-----------+----------+ | FirstName | LastName | +-----------+----------+ | David | Taylor | | Mike | NULL | | Sam | Brown | | NULL | Smith | +-----------+----------+ 4 rows in set (0.04 sec)
