How do I preserve the order of a SQL query using the IN command

Question

SELECT * FROM tblItems
WHERE itemId IN (9,1,4)

Returns in the order that SQL finds them in (which happens to be 1, 4, 9) however, I want them retur

Answer 1

You could create a procedure to order the data in SQL, but that would be much more complicated than its native language counterpart.

There's no "neat way" to resort the data like that in SQL -- the WHERE clause of a SELECT simply says "if these criteria are matched, include the row"; it's not (and it cannot be) an ordering criterion.