Version number sorting in Sql Server

Question

I have a table that stores the versions as under

Declare @tblVersion table(VersionNumber varchar(100))
 Insert into @tblVersion Values(\'1.3.1\')
 Insert int         


        

Answer 1

I cannot see the solution using standard sorting etc, but I think you need the UDF that adds the "0" symbols before each symbol, like

001.003.001
001.003.002.005
001.004.001.007.012
001.004.011.014.007
001.004.003.109.001
001.004.008.066

and then sort by these changed values

Answer 2

Check these helps you

Select * From @tblVersion order by replace(VersionNumber,'.','')

Answer 3

If you are on SQL Server 2005 or later and the number of possible fields in version numbers is fixed, you could try the following approach:

SELECT t.*
FROM @tblVersion t
  CROSS APPLY (SELECT v = NULLIF(CHARINDEX('.', '.' + t.VersionNumber,        1), 0)) v1
  CROSS APPLY (SELECT v = NULLIF(CHARINDEX('.', '.' + t.VersionNumber, v1.v + 1), 0)) v2
  CROSS APPLY (SELECT v = NULLIF(CHARINDEX('.', '.' + t.VersionNumber, v2.v + 1), 0)) v3
  CROSS APPLY (SELECT v = NULLIF(CHARINDEX('.', '.' + t.VersionNumber, v3.v + 1), 0)) v4
  CROSS APPLY (SELECT v = NULLIF(CHARINDEX('.', '.' + t.VersionNumber, v4.v + 1), 0)) v5
ORDER BY
  CAST(SUBSTRING(t.VersionNumber, v1.v, v2.v - v1.v - 1) AS int),
  CAST(SUBSTRING(t.VersionNumber, v2.v, v3.v - v2.v - 1) AS int),
  CAST(SUBSTRING(t.VersionNumber, v3.v, v4.v - v3.v - 1) AS int),
  CAST(SUBSTRING(t.VersionNumber, v4.v, v5.v - v4.v - 1) AS int),
  CAST(SUBSTRING(t.VersionNumber, v5.v, 999) AS int)

All fields of a version number are extracted one by one and converted to integers, which are then used for sorting. (Basically, @Brian's idea, as it turns out.)

Answer 4

The SELECT query is ordering alphabetically, rather than numerically. Without a stored procedure to add leading zeros into the separate components of the version number to make them all the same length, you cannot (AFAIK) do this in SQL.

Answer 5

This is generally called natural sort and there is no easy way to do it in SQL Server. Generally the data needs to be broken into fields or to fixed length segments of a field. It can be sorted on those field(s) for the desired order.

VersionNumber VersionSort
1.3.1         0001.0003.0001
1.3.2.5       0001.0003.0002.0005
1.4.1.7.12    0001.0004.0001.0007.0012
1.4.11.14.7   0001.0004.0011.0014.0007
1.4.3.109.1   0001.0004.0003.0109.0001
1.4.8.66      0001.0004.0008.0066

Answer 6

Implementation of Brain's Solution

Declare @tblVersion table(VersionNumber varchar(100)) 
 Insert into @tblVersion Values('1.3.1') 
 Insert into @tblVersion Values('1.3.2.5') 
 Insert into @tblVersion Values('1.4.1.7.12') 
 Insert into @tblVersion Values('1.4.11.14.7') 
 Insert into @tblVersion Values('1.4.3.109.1') 
 Insert into @tblVersion Values('1.4.8.66') 

 --Select * From @tblVersion 

 ;With CTE AS
 (
    Select 
        Rn = Row_Number() Over(Order By (Select 1))
        ,VersionNumber
    From @tblVersion
)
,CTESplit AS
(
    SELECT 
            F1.Rn,
            F1.VersionNumber,
            VersionSort = 
                            Case 
                                    When Len(O.VersionSort) = 1 Then '000' + O.VersionSort
                                    When Len(O.VersionSort) = 2 Then '00' + O.VersionSort
                                    When Len(O.VersionSort) = 3 Then '0' + O.VersionSort
                                    When Len(O.VersionSort) = 4 Then O.VersionSort
                            End

    FROM
    (
        SELECT *,
        cast('<X>'+replace(F.VersionNumber,'.','</X><X>')+'</X>' as XML) as xmlfilter from CTE F
    )F1
 CROSS APPLY
 ( 
    SELECT fdata.D.value('.','varchar(50)') as VersionSort  
    FROM f1.xmlfilter.nodes('X') as fdata(D)) O
 )
 ,CTE3 As(
Select 
        --Rn 
        --,
        VersionNumber
        ,SortableVersion = 
                            Stuff(
                                    (Select '.' + Cast(VersionSort As Varchar(100))
                             From CTESplit c2
                             Where c2.Rn = c1.Rn
                             For Xml Path('')),1,1,'')
From CTESplit c1
Group By c1.Rn,c1.VersionNumber
)
Select VersionNumber
From CTE3
Order By SortableVersion