modifying default sort order

[Matth_S]

Hi,

I want to sort the results of a query using a sort rule that doesn't correspond to the default "ORDER BY".

I explain :

I select the "name" field of a table and want to order the results by the first letter of this name field. If I simply put "ORDER BY LEFT(name,1)" , I'll get the following results :
A B C etc.

The problem is , I want to order it with a defined starting letter ; for example, if I want the first letter to be "V", I want to get the following results :
V W X Y Z A B C etc.

Do you know any way to modify this sort order and get the results as I previously described ?

[mrhappiness]

ORDER BY ASCII('V') - ASCII(UPPER(LEFT(columnname, 1)))

try this

[Matth_S]

Thanks for your answer.

I just tried what you suggested , but I get the results sorted this way :
Z Y X W V U etc

[mrhappiness]

try

SELECT 
  *,
  ASCII('V') - ASCII(UPPER(LEFT(sort_column, 1))) 
FROM sorting
ORDER BY 
  UPPER(LEFT(sort_column, 1)) != 'V',
  ASCII('V') - ASCII(UPPER(LEFT(sort_column, 1))) > 0,
  ASCII('V') - ASCII(UPPER(LEFT(sort_column, 1))) DESC

[Matth_S]

Thanks ! I just tried ; it works perfectly 🙂