SQL Server equivalent to Oracle's NULLS FIRST?

Question

So Oracle has NULLS FIRST, which I can use to have null values sorted at the top followed by my column value in descending order:

ORDER BY date_sent NULLS FI         


        

Answer 1

If you have rows in your table with dates less than now, and other rows with dates greater than now, your NULLS would appear in the middle of the list. Instead, you should probably use a value that will never sort in the middle of your list.

Order by IsNull(Date_Sent, '17530101') desc

Note: That date is actually Jan 1, 1753.

Answer 2

A simple example:

SELECT (CASE WHEN Value1 IS NULL THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS ValueIsNull, Value1, Value2, Value3
FROM TableName
ORDER BY ValueIsNull DESC, Value1