ORDER BY specific field value first in MySQL

To order by specific field value first in MySQL, use ORDER BY FIELD(). Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable849(Color varchar(100));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.56 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable849 values('RED');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.33 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable849 values('ORANGE');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable849 values('BLUE');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.15 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable849 values('GREEN');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable849;

This will produce the following output −

+--------+
| Color  |
+--------+
| RED    |
| ORANGE |
| BLUE   |
| GREEN  |
+--------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to order by specific value first −

mysql> select *from DemoTable849 order by field(Color,'RED','GREEN','BLUE','ORANGE');

This will produce the following output −

+--------+
| Color  |
+--------+
| RED    |
| GREEN  |
| BLUE   |
| ORANGE |
+--------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)