How to Order MySQL VARCHAR Results

Question

In a SELECT statement, I have a varchar column with ORDER BY DESC on it. Examples of data in this column:

1234
987
12-a
13-bh

MySQL would r

Answer 1

The easiest thing to do is this

SELECT *
FROM TBL
ORDER BY VARCHAR_COLUMN * 1;

To see what is happening, just add the column I used for ordering

SELECT *, VARCHAR_COLUMN * 1
FROM TBL
ORDER BY VARCHAR_COLUMN * 1;