CASE [That]
WHEN ‘A’ THEN 3
WHEN ‘B’ THEN 2
WHEN ‘C’ THEN 1
ELSE 0

ORDER BY
CASE WHEN @sort = 0
THEN X.SurName + ‘ ‘ + X.FirstName END,
CASE WHEN @sort = 1
AND @sortdirection = ‘D’
THEN X.ClientName END DESC,
CASE WHEN @sort = 1
AND @sortdirection = ”
THEN X.ClientName END,
CASE WHEN @sort = 2
AND @sortdirection = ‘D’
THEN X.StatusTypeDesc END DESC,
CASE WHEN @sort = 2
AND @sortdirection = ”
THEN X.StatusTypeDesc END,
CASE WHEN @sort = 3
AND @sortdirection = ‘D’
THEN Convert(varchar(20),X.CreationDate) END DESC,
CASE WHEN @sort = 3
AND @sortdirection = ”
THEN Convert(varchar(20),X.CreationDate) END,
CASE WHEN @sort = 4
AND @sortdirection = ‘D’
THEN X.Name END DESC,
CASE WHEN @sort = 4
AND @sortdirection = ”
THEN X.Name END,
CASE WHEN @sort = 5
AND @sortdirection = ‘D’
THEN Convert(varchar(20),X.StartDate) END DESC,
CASE WHEN @sort = 5
AND @sortdirection = ”
THEN Convert(varchar(20),X.StartDate) END,
CASE WHEN @sort = 6
AND @sortdirection = ‘D’
THEN X.categorycode END DESC,
CASE WHEN @sort = 6
AND @sortdirection = ”
THEN X.categorycode END

–note if sorting by [this] we need to sort by [that] first then by [this]
case @SortOrder
when ‘asc’ then
case @SortBy
when ‘This’ then
case [That]
when 4 then 1
else 0
end
end
end desc,
case @SortOrder
when ‘asc’ then
case @SortBy
when ‘This’ then [This]
end
end desc,

I think that that should evaluate to
Order by [That], [This]

Cheers folks.

Matt

I see Rökkvi has answered my question. I am eager to try!

Cheers folks.

matt.

I’m wondering if I can order by more than one column using the technique you have discussed here.

Here is an example of what I want to accomplish.

..
..
(ORDER BY
CASE @SortOrder
WHEN ‘asc’ THEN
CASE @SortBy
WHEN ‘This’ THEN
CASE [That]
WHEN ‘A’ THEN 3
WHEN ‘B’ THEN 2
WHEN ‘C’ THEN 1
ELSE 0
END, [This] –the comma doesn’t compile
END
END asc

Basically what I want to do is, when the user wants to sort by [This], I want to sort by [That] first using my custom specifications then sort by [This] normally.

If I just wanted to sort by [This], I would code

WHEN ‘This’ THEN [This]

But in my case I want to do some custom logic on [That] first then sort by [This]. The comma syntax I present there doesn’t work.
I’d like to avoid having to put another case statement for each WHEN clause in the CASE [That] clause if possibke.

Just wondering if you had any suggestions, thanks!

Matt.

i know you can CAST things over to the same type, but when you cast an int over to a varchar is does whole string order. 1,11,111,2,22,222,3… I saw something mentioned about padding? i need padding on my head, but i am sure that is not what they meant.

my types are

3 varchars
2 dates
2 int

i stinks to cast all to varchars.

thank you in advance!

Order By
case Column1
when ‘IT1′ then ‘XXX’
else Column1
end

I suppose then part should carry a column name for an order by clause.

ORDER BY
CASE @OrderBy
WHEN ‘itemCategory’ THEN itemCategory
WHEN ‘item’ THEN item
END ASC,
CASE @OrderBy
WHEN ‘itemCategory DESC’ THEN itemCategory
WHEN ‘item DESC’ THEN item
END DESC

If you have different datatypes, don’t cast as varchar since then you would have to pad strings, just a pain. When you have multiple data types, just divide the case groupings by datatype. So all the string fields would be together, all the numeric, then all the dates

Example:
ORDER BY
CASE @OrderBy
WHEN ‘itemCategory’ THEN itemCategory
WHEN ‘item’ THEN item
END ASC,
CASE @OrderBy
WHEN ’someInt1′ THEN someInt1
WHEN ’someInt2′ THEN someInt2
END ASC,
CASE @OrderBy
WHEN ‘itemCategory DESC’ THEN itemCategory
WHEN ‘item DESC’ THEN item
END DESC
CASE @OrderBy
WHEN ’someInt1 DESC’ THEN someInt1
WHEN ’someInt2 DESC’ THEN someInt2
END DESC

We have a mixed environment where we needed to support SQL 2000 and SQL 2005. The other reason that helps for sorting on the server is we use paging on the server… If you get paged data and then sort in the code retrieving it, it only sorts the paged data, which is no good to anybody.

I program in .net, and the object data source / gridviews automatically pass the sort with ” DESC” as part of the string, so we checked the asc and desc @OrderBy separately as you can see.

Use the same case multiple times in a row:

ORDER BY
CASE WHEN @SortOrder=1 THEN Cards.Cardholder
END,
CASE WHEN @SortOrder=1 THEN Transactions.Date
END,
CASE WHEN @SortOrder=2 THEN Transactions.Date
END,
Transactions.Amount

This would in case 1 order by cardholders, date, amount
and in case 2 oder by date, amount

I tried something like this ..let the case statement fall through

ORDER BY
CASE WHEN @OrderBy = ‘Option1′
THEN ORDER BY Field1 END ASC,
CASE WHEN @OrderBy = ‘Option1′
THEN ORDER BY Field2 END DESC,
CASE WHEN @OrderBy = ‘Option2′
THEN ORDER BY Field1 END DESC,
CASE WHEN @OrderBy = ‘Option2′
THEN ORDER BY Field 2 END DESC ,

This is obviously wrong but I need something like this.
KShah above has asked the same thing but I don’t seem to be able to find an answer.

Thanks in advance,

1. Use the dataview sort property to sort the data in your code.

2. Use IF/ELSE statements in SQL server to choose the appropriate query to use. Example:

IF @sort = ‘Balance’
SELECT * from Table ORDER BY Customer.Balance
ELSE IF @Sort = ‘CustomerName’
SELECT * FROM Table ORDER BY CustomerName

I use SQL Server 2000. I do not know if this was changed in 2005.

order by
CASE
WHEN @Test1 = 1 THEN
CASE WHEN @NestedTest2 = 1 THEN Customer.CustomersOwnNumber ELSE Customer.CustomerNumber
END
END,
CASE WHEN @SortOrder = 2 THEN Customer.Balance END DESC, Customer.CustomerName,
CASE WHEN @SortOrder 1 and @SortOrder 2 THEN Customer.CustomerName End

Thanks

ORDER BY
CASE
WHEN @OrderBy = ‘Postal’ AND @OrderByDirection = ‘D’
THEN PostalCode DESC
WHEN @OrderBy = ‘Postal’ AND @OrderByDirection != ‘D’
THEN PostalCode
WHEN @OrderBy = ‘State’ AND @OrderByDirection = ‘D’
THEN StateProvinceID DESC
WHEN @OrderBy = ‘State’ AND @OrderByDirection != ‘D’
THEN StateProvinceID
WHEN @OrderBy = ‘City’ AND @OrderByDirection = ‘D’
THEN City DESC
WHEN @OrderBy = ‘City’ AND @OrderByDirection != ‘D’
THEN City
END

and if you want to increase performance and readability (in my opinion) then do it this way:

ORDER BY
CASE @OrderByDirection
WHEN ‘D’
CASE @OrderBy
WHEN ‘Postal’
THEN PostalCode DESC
WHEN ‘State’
THEN StateProvinceID DESC
WHEN ‘City’
THEN City DESC
END
ELSE
CASE @OrderBy
WHEN ‘Postal’
THEN PostalCode
WHEN ‘State’
THEN StateProvinceID
WHEN ‘City’
THEN City
END
END

Just a suggestion.