MySQL conditional ORDER BY ASC/DESC for date column

Question

I need a MySQL conditional ORDER BY statement for a datetime field. I have a table with posts which I would like to order in the following way: all future posts

Answer 1

i would use an union all, tricks in order by can't use index and is slower.

SELECT * FROM
((SELECT
  1 AS a, @rownum:=@rownum+1 B, post_status, post_date, post_title
FROM
  wp_posts, (SELECT @rownum:=0) r 
WHERE
  post_status='publish'
ORDER BY
  post_date DESC)
UNION ALL
(SELECT
  2 AS a,  @rownum:=@rownum+1 B, post_status, post_date, post_title
FROM
  wp_posts, (SELECT @rownum:=0) r2
WHERE
  post_status='future'
ORDER BY
  post_date)) ORDER BY A,B;