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Convert partially non-numeric text into number in MySQL query

Asked 2011-05-11T07:18:53.880
159

Is it possible to convert text into a number within MySQL query? I have a column with an identifier that consists a name and a number in the format of "name-number". The column has VARCHAR type. I want to sort the rows according to the number (rows with the same name) but the column is sorted according to do character order, i.e.

name-1
name-11
name-12
name-2

If I cut off the number, can I convert the 'varchar' number into the 'real' number and use it to sort the rows? I would like to obtain the following order.

name-1
name-2
name-11
name-12

I cannot represent the number as a separate column.

edited 2011-05-11 9:32

I have found the following solution ... ORDER BY column * 1. If the name will not contain any numbers is it safe to use that solution?

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if your primary key is a string in a format like

ABC/EFG/EE/13/123(sequence number)
this sort of string can be easily used for sorting with the delimiter("/")

we can use the following query to order a table with this type of key

SELECT * FROM `TABLE_NAME` ORDER BY 
CONVERT(REVERSE(SUBSTRING(REVERSE(`key_column_name`), 1, LOCATE('/', REVERSE(`key_column_name`)) - 1)) , UNSIGNED INTEGER) DESC
answered 2013-07-15T11:25:23.773

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