What is the MS SQL Server capability similar to the MySQL FIELD() function?

Question

MySQL provides a string function named FIELD() which accepts a variable number of arguments. The return value is the location of the first argument in the list of the remai

Answer 1

ORDER BY CHARINDEX(','+convert(varchar,status)+',' ,   
  ',rejected,active,submitted,approved,')


just put a comma before and after a string in which you are finding the substring index or you can say that second parameter.

and first parameter of charindex is also surrounded by ,  

Answer 2

For your particular example your could:

ORDER BY CHARINDEX(
    ',' + status + ',',
    ',rejected,active,submitted,approved,'
)

Note that FIELD was supposed to return 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 where as the above will return 0, 1, 10, 17 and 27 so this trick is only useful inside the order by clause.

Answer 3

Use a CASE expression (SQL Server 2005+):

ORDER BY CASE status
           WHEN 'active' THEN 1
           WHEN 'approved' THEN 2
           WHEN 'rejected' THEN 3
           WHEN 'submitted' THEN 4
           ELSE 5
         END

You can use this syntax for more complex evaluation (including combinations, or if you need to use LIKE)

ORDER BY CASE 
           WHEN status LIKE 'active' THEN 1
           WHEN status LIKE 'approved' THEN 2
           WHEN status LIKE 'rejected' THEN 3
           WHEN status LIKE 'submitted' THEN 4
           ELSE 5
         END

Answer 4

I recommend a CTE (SQL server 2005+). No need to repeat the status codes or create the separate table.

WITH cte(status, RN) AS (  -- CTE to create ordered list and define where clause
      SELECT 'active', 1
UNION SELECT 'approved', 2
UNION SELECT 'rejected', 3
UNION SELECT 'submitted', 4
)
SELECT <field1>, <field2>
FROM <table> tbl
INNER JOIN cte ON cte.status = tbl.status  -- do the join
ORDER BY cte.RN  -- use the ordering defined in the cte

Good luck,

Jason