Natural Sort in MySQL

Question

Is there an elegant way to have performant, natural sorting in a MySQL database?

For example if I have this data set:

• Final Fantasy
• Final Fant

Answer 1

You can also create in a dynamic way the "sort column" :

SELECT name, (name = '-') boolDash, (name = '0') boolZero, (name+0 > 0) boolNum 
FROM table 
ORDER BY boolDash DESC, boolZero DESC, boolNum DESC, (name+0), name

That way, you can create groups to sort.

In my query, I wanted the '-' in front of everything, then the numbers, then the text. Which could result in something like :

-
0    
1
2
3
4
5
10
13
19
99
102
Chair
Dog
Table
Windows

That way you don't have to maintain the sort column in the correct order as you add data. You can also change your sort order depending on what you need.