I have a schema that essentially looks like this:
CREATE TABLE `data` (
`id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`title` text,
`type` tinyint(4),
`parent` int
You said you wanted it to sort on the titles, correct?
SELECT id, title, parent
FROM
( SELECT id, title, parent,
CASE WHEN parent is null THEN title ELSE CONCAT((SELECT title FROM `data` d2 WHERE d2.id = d.parent), '.', d.title) END AS sortkey
FROM `data` d
) subtable
ORDER BY sortkey
edit: Edited to remove type from the query.