Custom sorting using two different columns in MySQL?

For this, use ORDER BY clause along with CASE statement. Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable1610    -> (    -> Marks int,    -> Name varchar(20)    -> ) ; Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.51 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable1610 values(85,'John'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.18 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1610 values(78,'Carol'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1610 values(78,'John'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.22 sec) mysql> insert into DemoTable1610 values(85,'Carol'); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.20 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select * from DemoTable1610; 

This will produce the following output

+-------+-------+ | Marks | Name  | +-------+-------+ |    85 | John  | |    78 | Carol | |    78 | John  | |    85 | Carol | +-------+-------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Here is the query to custom sort using two different columns in MySQL −

mysql> select * from DemoTable1610    -> order by Marks,case when Name='Carol' then 1 else 0 end;

This will produce the following output

+-------+-------+ | Marks | Name  | +-------+-------+ |    78 | John  | |    78 | Carol | |    85 | John  | |    85 | Carol | +-------+-------+ 4 rows in set (0.00 sec)