SQL - ORDER BY not working properly?

Question

SELECT test_column FROM test_table ORDER BY test_column gives me this:

1   
12  
123  
2  
3

Why not:

1
2
         


        

Answer 1

Check if the type of the column is varchar or something similar. Looks like it is being ordered by string value, not by numeric value. If the column only contains numbers it should better be of type int.