Returning query results in predefined order

Question

Is it possible to do a SELECT statement with a predetermined order, ie. selecting IDs 7,2,5,9 and 8 and returning them in that order, based on

Answer 1

Erm, not really. Closest you can get is probably:

SELECT * FROM table WHERE id IN (3, 2, 1, 4) ORDER BY id=4, id=1, id=2, id=3

But you probably don't want that :)

It's hard to give you any more specific advice without more information about what's in the tables.