Sort string as number in sql server

Question

I have a column that contains data like this. dashes indicate multi copies of the same invoice and these have to be sorted in ascending order

790711
790109-1         


        

Answer 1

Try this one -

Query:

DECLARE @Invoice TABLE (InvoiceNumber VARCHAR(10))
INSERT @Invoice 
VALUES
      ('790711')
    , ('790709-1')
    , ('790709-21')
    , ('790709-11')
    , ('790709-211')
    , ('790709-2')

;WITH cte AS 
(
    SELECT 
          InvoiceNumber
        , lenght = LEN(InvoiceNumber)
        , delimeter = CHARINDEX('-', InvoiceNumber)
    FROM @Invoice
)
SELECT InvoiceNumber
FROM cte
CROSS JOIN (
    SELECT repl = MAX(lenght - delimeter)
    FROM cte
    WHERE delimeter != 0
) mx
ORDER BY 
      SUBSTRING(InvoiceNumber, 1, ISNULL(NULLIF(delimeter - 1, -1), lenght))
    , RIGHT(REPLICATE('0', repl) + SUBSTRING(InvoiceNumber, delimeter + 1, lenght), repl)

Output:

InvoiceNumber
-------------
790709-1
790709-2
790709-11
790709-21
790709-211
790711