MySQL order by ABS if numeric

Question

I need to order some information with order by in a MySQL query. Is there a possibility to use the ABS function only if the first char is numeric? Pseudo example: ``` SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY (( name[0] = numeric ) ? ABS(name) : name) ASC ``` Thanks for the answers so far, tried a lot with your answers but I don't get the result I want. The current code: ``` <?php $filters = $this->db->query(" SELECT tb_spec_feature.feature_id, tb_spec_feature.name FROM tb_spec_feature WHERE filter=1 "); $filters = $filters->result_array(); foreach($filters as $key=>$filter) { $filters_sub = $this->db->query(" SELECT DISTINCT tb_spec_value.value_id, tb_spec_value.name as value_name, tb_spec_sign.name as sign_name FROM tb_spec_fk INNER JOIN tb_spec_value ON tb_spec_value.value_id = tb_spec_fk.value LEFT JOIN tb_spec_sign ON tb_spec_sign.sign_id = tb_spec_fk.sign WHERE feature=".$this->db->escape($filter['feature_id'])." ORDER BY ABS(tb_spec_value.name) ASC "); $filters[$key]['values'] = $filters_su…

Accepted Answer

This code is the MySql way of your question:

```
SELECT * FROM table 
ORDER BY
CASE WHEN LEFT(name, 1)>='0' AND LEFT(name, 1)<='9' THEN ABS(name) 
     ELSE name 
     END ASC
```

(Edit) But according to comments, is better for you:

```
ORDER BY ABS(name), name
```

That works in this way: If ABS() can be applied to 'name' the numeric resulting value will be ordered, but in the opposite case, if ABS(name) evaluates to null (because a non numeric has no abs value) then the second field (name) on order by, is which is relevant to the sort.

MySQL order by ABS if numeric

Solution

Problem