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

I prefer this way to handle nullable columns:

SELECT Id, Date1, Date2
FROM YourTable
ORDER BY 
   CASE 
     WHEN Date1 < Date2 OR Date1 IS NULL THEN Date1 
     ELSE Date2 
   END