mysql equivalent to substr($i,1) ?

[pheonix]

I have been trying to find a way to sort (ORDER BY) my mySQL query starting at the 2nd character . The reason being, i have a list of books in the db and some of them have volumes. I need them to sort like the following:

Apple
1Box
2Box
1Cat
2Cat
3Cat
Dog
Fish
1Keyboard
2Keyboard
... etc.

Any Ideas ...

Thanks,
Daniel

[sfullman]

ORDER BY
IF(
SUBSTRING(field,1,1)>=0 AND SUBSTRING(field,1,1)<=9,
SUBSTRING(field,2),
field)

in otherwords, order by if the first character is a number, then starting from 2nd position, otherwise from 1st position.

Look up substring in dev.mysql.com because that part is probably incorrect.

Sam