Sorting VARCHAR column with alphanumeric entries

Question

I am using SQL Server, the column is a VARCHAR(50) and I want to sort it like this:

1A        
1B        
2        
2        
3        
4A        
4B        
4C        
5A        
5B        
5C        
5N        
14 Draft        
21        
22A        
22B        
23A        
23B        
23C        
23D        
23E        
25        
26        
FR01584        
MISC

What I have so far is:

Select *
From viewASD
ORDER BY 
    Case When IsNumeric(LEFT(asdNumNew,1)) = 1 
         Then CASE When IsNumeric(asdNumNew) = 1 
                   Then Right(Replicate('0',20) + asdNumNew + '0', 20)
                   Else Right(Replicate('0',20) + asdNumNew, 20) 
              END
         When IsNumeric(LEFT(asdNumNew,1)) = 0 
         Then Left(asdNumNew + Replicate('',21), 20)
    End

But this SQL statement puts '14 Draft' right after '26'.

Could someone help? Thanks

Answer 1

Your WHERE statement is... oddly complex.

It looks like you want to sort by any leading numeric digits in integer order, and then sort by the remainder. If so, you should do that as separate clauses, rather than trying to do it all in one. The specific issue you're having is that you're only allowing for a single-digit number, instead of two or more. (And there's No such thing as two.)

Here's your fix, along with a SQLFiddle, using two separate calculated columns tests for your ORDER BY. (Note that this assumes the numeric portion of asdNumNew will fit in a T-SQL int. If not, you'll need to adjust the CAST and the maximum value on the first ELSE.)

SELECT * FROM viewASD
ORDER BY 
CASE 
  WHEN ISNUMERIC(asdNumNew)=1 
  THEN CAST(asdNumNew as int)

  WHEN PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',asdNumNew) > 1 
  THEN CAST(
    LEFT(
      asdNumNew,
      PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',asdNumNew) - 1
    ) as int)

  ELSE 2147483648
END, 


CASE 
  WHEN ISNUMERIC(asdNumNew)=1 
  THEN NULL

  WHEN PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',asdNumNew) > 1 
  THEN SUBSTRING(
      asdNumNew,
      PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',asdNumNew) ,
      50
    ) 

  ELSE asdNumNew
END

Answer 2

If all numbers within the string are reasonably small, say not exceeding 10 digits, you may expand all the numbers in the string to be exactly 10 digits:

123A -> 0000000123A

 S4 -> S0000000004

A3B89 -> A0000000003B0000000089

and so on and then sort them

-- Expand all numbers within S by zeros to be MaxLen
create function [dbo].ExpandNumbers(@S VarChar(4000), @maxlen integer) returns VarChar(4000)
as
begin
  declare @result VarChar(4000);
  declare @buffer VarChar(4000);
  declare @Ch Char;

  declare @i integer;

  set @buffer = '';
  set @result = '';
  set @i = 1;

  while (@i <= len(@S))
    begin
      set @Ch = substring(@S, @i, 1);


      if ((@Ch >= '0') and (@Ch <= '9')) 
        set @buffer = @buffer + @Ch
      else 
        begin
          if (len(@buffer) > 0) 
            set @result = @result + right(replicate('0', @maxlen) + @buffer, @maxlen);

          set @buffer = '';  
          set @result = @result + @Ch;
        end;

      set @i = @i + 1;  
    end;

  if (len(@buffer) > 0) 
    set @result = @result + right(replicate('0', @maxlen) + @buffer, @maxlen);

  return @result;
end;

-- Final query is

   select *
    from viewASD
order by [dbo].ExpandNumbers(asdNumNew)

Answer 3

TRY THIS
declare @t table (Number nvarchar(20)) insert into @t select 'L010' union all select 'L011' union all select 'L011' union all select 'L001' union all select 'L012' union all select '18'
union all select '8' union all select '17'

  union all select  'B004'    
union all SELECT 'B006'    
union all SELECT 'B008'
union all SELECT 'B018'   
union all SELECT 'UG001'
union all SELECT 'UG011'   
union all SELECT 'G001'    
union all SELECT  'G002' 
 union all SELECT 'G011'     





select * from @t 
order by cast(SUBSTRING(Number, 1, 
case when patindex('%[^0-9]%',Number) > 0 then patindex('%[^0-9]%',Number) - 1 else LEN(Number) end) as int), Number

o/p

**Number**
B004
B006
B008
B018
G001
G002
G011
L001
L010
L011
L011
L012
UG001
UG011
8
17
18

Answer 4

I had something similar, but with the possibility of dashes as leading characters as well as trailing spaces. This code worked for me.

SELECT 
    my_column,
    PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',my_column) AS first_alpha_position,
    CONVERT(INT,
    CASE 
        WHEN PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',my_column) = 0 OR PATINDEX('-%',my_column) = 1
            THEN ABS(my_column)
        ELSE SUBSTRING(my_column,1,PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',my_column) -1)
    END) AS numeric_value,
    LTRIM(
        SUBSTRING(my_column,PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',my_column),LEN(my_column)-PATINDEX('%[^0-9]%',my_column)+1)
) AS alpha_chars
FROM my_table
ORDER BY numeric_value,alpha_chars