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

If you don't want to use Case statement in the Order By , then this is another approach, just moving the Case statement to Select

SELECT Id, Date1, Date2 FROM 
 (SELECT Id, Date1, Date2
  ,CASE WHEN Date1 < Date2 THEN Date1 ELSE Date2 END as MinDate 
FROM YourTable) as T
ORDER BY MinDate