Sort by minimum value of two columns

Question

I use SQL Server 2008 R2.

I need to sort a table by the minimal value of two columns.

The table looks like this:

ID: integer; 
Date         


        

Answer 1

This may be an alternate solution which does not require branching like CASE WHEN. This is based on the formula max(a,b)=1/2(a+b+|a−b|) as described here. We get the absolute values of a and b using DATEDIFF with a reference date ('1773-01-01').

ORDER BY (DATEDIFF(d,'17730101' ,isnull(Startdate,enddate)) + DATEDIFF(d,'17730101' ,isnull(EndDate,Startdate)) 
    -  ABS(DATEDIFF(d,isnull(Startdate,enddate),isnull(EndDate,Startdate))))

Test Data

Create Table #DateData(ID int Identity, Name varchar(15),Startdate datetime,EndDate DateTime)
Insert Into #DateData(Name,Startdate,EndDate) values ('myName','2015-04-17 18:48:27','2015-04-18 18:48:27')
Insert Into #DateData(Name,Startdate,EndDate) values ('myName','2015-04-19 18:48:27','2015-04-18 18:48:27')
Insert Into #DateData(Name,Startdate,EndDate) values ('myName','2015-04-20 18:48:27','2015-04-18 18:48:27')
Insert Into #DateData(Name,Startdate,EndDate) values ('myName','2015-04-11 18:48:27','2015-04-22 18:48:27')
Insert Into #DateData(Name,Startdate,EndDate) values ('myName','2015-05-09 18:48:27','2015-04-18 18:48:27')
Insert Into #DateData(Name,Startdate,EndDate) values ('myName','2015-04-17 19:07:38','2015-04-17 18:55:38')
Insert Into #DateData(Name,Startdate,EndDate) values ('myName','2015-04-17 19:07:38','2015-05-12 18:56:29')

Complete Query

select *
from #DateData order by (DATEDIFF(d,'17730101' ,isnull(Startdate,enddate)) + DATEDIFF(d,'17730101' ,isnull(EndDate,Startdate)) 
-  ABS(DATEDIFF(d,isnull(Startdate,enddate),isnull(EndDate,Startdate))))