Clauses, Sorting, and SQL Queries - Sorting via Numeric Placeholders

If you are sorting using the columns in your select clause, you can opt to reference the columns by their position in the select clause rather than by name. For example, if you want to sort using the second and fifth columns returned by a query, you could do the following:

    mysql> SELECT emp_id, title, start_date, fname, lname
        -> FROM employee
        -> ORDER BY 2, 5;

 

emp_id title		start_date fname					lname
	13  Head Teller		2000-05-11  John						Blake
	6 Head Teller		2004-03-17  Helen						Fleming
	16  Head Teller		2001-03-15  Theresa						Markham
	10  Head Teller		2002-07-27 Paula						Roberts
	5  Loan Manager			2003-11-14  John					Gooding
	4 Operations Manager 2002-04-24 | Susan								Hawthorne
	1  President				2001-06-22  Michael  Smith
	17 Teller				2002-06-29  Beth	Fowler
	9  Teller				2002-05-03  Jane	Grossman
	12  Teller				2003-01-08  Samantha  Jameson
	14  Teller				2002-08-09 Cindy			Mason
	8  Teller				2002-12-02  Sarah			Parker
	15  Teller				2003-04-01  Frank			Portman
	7  Teller				2004-09-15  Chris			Tucker
	18 Teller				2002-12-12  Rick			Tulman
	11  Teller				2000-10-23  Thomas			Ziegler
	3Treasurer				2000-02-09  Robert			Tyler
	2  Vice President				2002-09-12  Susan			Barker

18 rows in set (0.03 sec)

You might want to use this feature sparingly, since adding a column to theselectclause without changing the numbers in theorder byclause can lead to unexpected results.