MySQL order by string with numbers

Question

I have strings such as M1 M3 M4 M14 M30 M40 etc (really any int 2-3 digits after a letter) When I do \" ORDER BY name \" this returns:

M1, M14, M3

Answer 1

Try remove the character with SUBSTR. Then use ABS to get the absolute value from field:

SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY ABS(SUBSTR(field,1));