MySql: ORDER BY parent and child

Question

I have a table like:

+------+---------+-
| id   | parent  |
+------+---------+
| 2043 |    NULL |
| 2044 |    2043 |
| 2045 |    2043 |
| 2049 |    2043 |
|          


        

Answer 1

Including sorting children by id:

ORDER BY COALESCE(parent, id), parent IS NOT NULL, id

SQL Fiddle example

Explanation:

• COALESCE(parent, id): First sort by (effectively grouping together) the parent's id.
• parent IS NOT NULL: Put the parent row on top of the group
• id: Finally sort all the children (same parent, and parent is not null)