Possible to use SQL to sort by date but put null dates at the back of the results set?

Question

I have a bunch of tasks in a MySQL database, and one of the fields is \"deadline date\". Not every task has to have to a deadline date.

I\'d like to use SQL to sort the

Answer 1

The easiest way is using the minus operator with DESC.

SELECT * FROM request ORDER BY -date DESC

In MySQL, NULL values are considered lower in order than any non-NULL value, so sorting in ascending (ASC) order NULLs are listed first, and if descending (DESC) they are listed last.

When a - (minus) sign is added before the column name, NULL become -NULL.

Since -NULL == NULL, adding DESC make all the rows sort by date in ascending order followed by NULLs at last.