How to compare version string (“x.y.z”) in MySQL?

Question

I have firmware version strings into my table (like \"4.2.2\" or \"4.2.16\")

How can I compare, select or sort them ?

I cannot use standard strings compariso

Answer 1

I've created a flexible SQL-only solution based on the excellent answer of Salman A above:

In this logic, I compare the first 4 version-segments. When the version string has more segments, the tailing ones are ignored.

The code fetches the id and ver columns from a table and then "sanitizes" the ver value to always contain 3 dots - this sanitized version is returned by the sane_ver field.

That sanitized version is then split into 4 integer values, each representing one version segment. You can compare or sort the results based on those 4 integers.

The Code

SELECT
    id,
    ver,
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(sane_ver, '.', 1) + 0 AS ver1,
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(sane_ver, '.', 2), '.', -1) + 0 AS ver2,
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(sane_ver, '.', 3), '.', -1) + 0 AS ver3,
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(sane_ver, '.', 4), '.', -1) + 0 AS ver4
FROM (
    SELECT
        id,
        ver,
        CONCAT(
            ver,
            REPEAT('.0', 3 - CHAR_LENGTH(ver) + CHAR_LENGTH(REPLACE(ver, '.', '')))
        ) AS sane_ver
    FROM (
        SELECT id, ver FROM some_table
    ) AS raw_data 
) AS sane_data

---

Sample

Here's a full query with some sample data and a filter that returns only versions that are lower than 1.2.3.4

SELECT
    id,
    ver,
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(sane_ver, '.', 1) + 0 AS ver1,
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(sane_ver, '.', 2), '.', -1) + 0 AS ver2,
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(sane_ver, '.', 3), '.', -1) + 0 AS ver3,
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(sane_ver, '.', 4), '.', -1) + 0 AS ver4
FROM (
    SELECT
        id,
        ver,
        CONCAT(
            ver,
            REPEAT('.0', 3 - CHAR_LENGTH(ver) + CHAR_LENGTH(REPLACE(ver, '.', '')))
        ) AS sane_ver
    FROM (
        SELECT 1 AS id, '1' AS ver UNION
        SELECT 2,  '1.1' UNION
        SELECT 3,  '1.2.3.4.5' UNION
        SELECT 4,  '1.01' UNION
        SELECT 5,  '1.01.03' UNION
        SELECT 6,  '1.01.04a' UNION
        SELECT 7,  '1.01.04' UNION
        SELECT 8,  '1.01.04b' UNION
        SELECT 9,  '1.01.1.9.2.1.0' UNION
        SELECT 10, '1.11' UNION
        SELECT 11, '1.2' UNION
        SELECT 12, '1.2.0' UNION
        SELECT 13, '1.2.1' UNION
        SELECT 14, '1.2.11' UNION
        SELECT 15, '1.2.2' UNION
        SELECT 16, '2.0' UNION
        SELECT 17, '2.0.1' UNION
        SELECT 18, '11.1.1' UNION
        SELECT 19, '2020.11.18.11'
    ) AS raw_data 
) AS sane_data
HAVING 
    ver1 <= 1
    AND (ver2 <= 2 OR ver1 < 1) 
    AND (ver3 <= 3 OR ver2 < 2 OR ver1 < 1) 
    AND (ver4 <  4 OR ver3 < 3 OR ver2 < 2 OR ver1 < 1)

Notes

Note how this logic is different than the original code by Salman A:

The original answer uses CAST AS DECIMAL() which converts 1.02 to 1.020, and 1.1.0 to 1.100
→ That compares 1.02.0 to be lower than 1.1.0 (which is wrong, in my understanding)

The code in this answer converts 1.02 to the integers 1, 2, and 1.1 to the integers 1, 1
→ That compares 1.1.0 to be lower than 1.02.0

Also, both our solutions completely ignore any non-numeric characters, treating 1.2-alpha to be equal to 1.2.0.