Custom order in SELECT

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Custom order in SELECT

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RZ52

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 2:26 PM

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Hi,

How could we change the order in SELECT command based on a custom semicolon delimited phrase.

We have :

[Letters]
----------
a
b
c
d
e

And based on this phrase 'd;c;b;a;e' we want to have :

[Letters]
----------
d
c
b
a
e

Thanks in advance for helps

Post #1425753

Erin Ramsay

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 2:32 PM

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Something like this maybe?

select letter from 
(select 'a' letter
	union
select 'b' letter
	union
select 'c' letter
	union		
select 'd' letter
	union	
select 'e' letter)source 
order by (case letter when 'd' then 1	when 'c' then 2 when 'b' then 3 when 'a' then 4 	when 'e' then 5 end)

Post #1425756

RZ52

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 2:45 PM

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Last Login: Saturday, May 04, 2013 7:55 AM
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Erin Ramsay (3/1/2013)

Something like this maybe?

select letter from 
(select 'a' letter
	union
select 'b' letter
	union
select 'c' letter
	union		
select 'd' letter
	union	
select 'e' letter)source 
order by (case letter when 'd' then 1	when 'c' then 2 when 'b' then 3 when 'a' then 4 	when 'e' then 5 end)

Dear Erin,

Thanks for suggestion. I think I didn't explain well. what I'm looking for is to run a SELECT against a table based on custom phrase. I have a temp table named @TEST1 like :

DECLARE @TEST1 TABLE (letter varchar(1))
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('a')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('b')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('c')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('d')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('e')

Now I need to "SELECT letter FROM @TEST1" based on order defined in this phrase 'd;c;b;a;e' to have a result like :

[Letters]
----------
d
c
b
a
e

Any idea ?

Thanks

Post #1425759

Erin Ramsay

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 2:54 PM

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If your custom phrase is static you can use:

select letter from @test1 order by (case letter when 'd' then 1 when 'c' then 2 when 'b' then 3 when 'a' then 4 	when 'e' then 5 end)

Post #1425762

RZ52

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 3:13 PM

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Last Login: Saturday, May 04, 2013 7:55 AM
Points: 42, Visits: 74

Erin Ramsay (3/1/2013)

If your custom phrase is static you can use:

select letter from @test1 order by (case letter when 'd' then 1 when 'c' then 2 when 'b' then 3 when 'a' then 4 	when 'e' then 5 end)

Dear Erin,

Thanks, you solved my problem.

Regards.

Post #1425768

Sean Lange

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 3:14 PM

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To do this you will first need to parse your delimited string. The easiest way to parse a delimited string like is to use DelimitedSplit8K. You can find out about this splitter by following the article in my signature about splitting strings.

In this case we need to split the string and keep them in order. Here is where we can really harness the power of the DelimitedSplit8K function. The following code should work for you.

DECLARE @TEST1 TABLE (letter varchar(1))
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('a')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('b')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('c')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('d')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('e')

declare @SortString varchar(10) = 'd;c;b;a;e' 

select * 
from @Test1 t
join
(
	select ItemNumber, Item
	from dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(@SortString, ';')
) x on t.letter = x.Item
order by x.ItemNumber

Make sure you read that article and understand what it is doing.

_______________________________________________________________

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Post #1425769

Lowell

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 3:16 PM

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ok i just tested this, but i made some assumptions;
when you say "
I THINK you are saying "If I pass this string 'd;c;b;a;e', i want the companies ordered in that order, instead of normal alphabetical order"

If I read that right, then this works correctly. my example is using sys.objects as sample data. so you see Defaults, then check constraints, then foreign keys in that order, for example:

oh yeah, like many good solutions, you need the DelimitedSplit8K function:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/

select * from sys.objects
OUTER apply master.dbo.delimitedsplit8k('d;c;b;a;e',';') myfn
ORDER BY CASE WHEN LEFT(name,1) = myfn.Item THEN 1 ELSE 2 END,myfn.ItemNumber

Lowell

--There is no spoon, and there's no default ORDER BY in sql server either.
Actually, Common Sense is so rare, it should be considered a Superpower. --my son

Post #1425770

Sean Lange

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 3:25 PM

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Lowell, you would have to add a where clause to only return those rows that match. Notice below this will return a cartesian product.

select * 
from @Test1 t
OUTER apply dbo.delimitedsplit8k('d;c;b;a;e',';') myfn
ORDER BY CASE WHEN LEFT(letter,1) = myfn.Item THEN 1 ELSE 2 END,myfn.ItemNumber

The top 5 rows are sorted perfectly but it returned 25 rows instead of 5.

Add the where clause and it works correctly.

select * 
from @Test1 t
OUTER apply dbo.delimitedsplit8k('d;c;b;a;e',';') myfn
where t.letter = myfn.Item
ORDER BY CASE WHEN LEFT(letter,1) = myfn.Item THEN 1 ELSE 2 END,myfn.ItemNumber

_______________________________________________________________

Need help? Help us help you.

Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

Need to split a string? Try Jeff Moden's splitter.

Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns
Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs

Post #1425775

RZ52

Posted Friday, March 01, 2013 4:03 PM

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Last Login: Saturday, May 04, 2013 7:55 AM
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Sean Lange (3/1/2013)

Lowell, you would have to add a where clause to only return those rows that match. Notice below this will return a cartesian product.

select * 
from @Test1 t
OUTER apply dbo.delimitedsplit8k('d;c;b;a;e',';') myfn
ORDER BY CASE WHEN LEFT(letter,1) = myfn.Item THEN 1 ELSE 2 END,myfn.ItemNumber

The top 5 rows are sorted perfectly but it returned 25 rows instead of 5.

Add the where clause and it works correctly.

select * 
from @Test1 t
OUTER apply dbo.delimitedsplit8k('d;c;b;a;e',';') myfn
where t.letter = myfn.Item
ORDER BY CASE WHEN LEFT(letter,1) = myfn.Item THEN 1 ELSE 2 END,myfn.ItemNumber

Dear Sean,

The proposed command works well. However, if we have repeated value of same letter like :

DECLARE @TEST1 TABLE (letter varchar(1))
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('a')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('b')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('c')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('d')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('a')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('a')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('d')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('d')

running the command

select letter 
from @Test1 t
OUTER apply dbo.delimitedsplit8k('d;c;b;a;e',';') myfn
where t.letter = myfn.Item
ORDER BY CASE WHEN LEFT(letter,1) = myfn.Item THEN 1 ELSE 2 END,myfn.ItemNumber

will return all rows. I tried to add SELECT DISTINCT to above command :

Select Distinct Letter from 
(select letter 
from @Test1 t
OUTER apply dbo.delimitedsplit8k('d;c;b;a;e',';') myfn
where t.letter = myfn.Item
ORDER BY CASE WHEN LEFT(letter,1) = myfn.Item THEN 1 ELSE 2 END,myfn.ItemNumber) xx

But it raise the error :

Msg 1033, Level 15, State 1, Line 16
The ORDER BY clause is invalid in views, inline functions, derived tables, subqueries, and common table expressions, unless TOP or FOR XML is also specified.

How could I manage to avoid repeated values ?

Thanks

Post #1425783

dwain.c

Posted Monday, March 04, 2013 1:48 AM

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Try it like this:

DECLARE @TEST1 TABLE (letter varchar(1))
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('a')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('b')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('c')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('d')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('a')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('a')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('d')
INSERT INTO @TEST1(letter) VALUES('d')

;WITH CTE AS (SELECT DISTINCT letter FROM @Test1)
select letter 
from CTE t
OUTER apply dbo.delimitedsplit8k('d;c;b;a;e',';') myfn
where t.letter = myfn.Item
ORDER BY CASE WHEN LEFT(letter,1) = myfn.Item THEN 1 ELSE 2 END,myfn.ItemNumber

No loops! No CURSORs! No RBAR! Hoo-uh!

INDEXing a poor-performing query is like putting sugar on cat food. Yeah, it probably tastes better but are you sure you want to eat it?

Need to UNPIVOT? Why not CROSS APPLY VALUES instead?
Since random numbers are too important to be left to chance, let's generate some!
Are you too recursively challenged?
Splitting strings based on patterns can be fast!

Post #1426122

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