Postgresql sorting mixed alphanumeric data

Question

Running this query:

select name from folders order by name

returns these results:

alphanumeric
a test
test 20
test 19
test          


        

Answer 1

Tor's last SQL worked for me. However if you are calling this code from php you need add extra slashes.

SELECT name
FROM folders
ORDER BY
COALESCE(SUBSTRING(name FROM '^(\\\\d+)')::INTEGER, 99999999),
SUBSTRING(name FROM '^\\\\d* *(.*?)( \\\\d+)?$'),
COALESCE(SUBSTRING(name FROM ' (\\\\d+)$')::INTEGER, 0),
name;