Thanks Thadeus and Jonathan for your suggestions. -S
On Jul 23, 10:06 pm, Thadeus Burgess <[email protected]> wrote: > It is possible to create SQL functions that will represent your > natural sort. You can use db.executesql("") to call the function. > > Read the following comments in the below link for examples on > performing this with postgresql. > > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/interactive/queries-order.html > > -- > Thadeus > > On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 8:01 PM, Jonathan Lundell <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Jul 23, 2010, at 5:39 PM, DJ wrote: > > >> I have sorting problem with a column in the database (string) that > >> stores alphanumeric data. The data is A1, A2, A3..A10, A11, A12. > > >> When I sort by column type, I get A1, A10, A11, A12 but I would like > >> to get A1, A2, A3...A10, A11, A12. Is there anything I can try with > >> orderby="columntype"? What other kind of operations does orderby > >> allow? (I saw field.upper and field.month). > > > What you're looking for is a natural (as opposed to lexical) sort, which > > most (all?) databases lack. > > > A common solution is to create another column to serve as a sort key. In > > your example, it might be A01, A02, ... A10. Or two columns, one with the > > leading alpha, sorted lexically, and the other with the number, sorted > > numerically (and a two-column major-minor sort).
