[JPA/TOPLINK] is the function "lower" supported in "order by" clause?

Question

In EJB-QL
I can use lower() or upper() in where clause.
But there is always a parse exception thrown when i tried to use it in main clause or order by clause.
works:
select s from Student s where lower(s.name) like 'm%'
exception thrown:
select s from Student s where s.name like 'm%' order by lower(s.name)
OR --------------
Why i am asking this is that the resultset returned from database is not alphabetical sorted but ascii sorted, which means any characters with upper case is always prior to the ones with lower case.
If EJB-QL doesn't support using lower() in order by clause, do I have any other options to avoid this problem?
BTW, it is the Oracle 10g we are using as DB
many thanks,
Xuphey
Edited by: Xuphey on Nov 29, 2007 1:33 AM

Answer 1

If you want to do this, you'd have to use dynamic SQL (execute immediate or DBMS_SQL). For the easier 'execute immediate' approach, you'd do something like
create or replace someProc( someArg varchar2 )
as
  strSQL varchar2(4000)
begin
  strSQL := <<string containing your SQL statement up to the order by clause>>
  strSQL := strSQL || 'ORDER BY ' || someArg
  execute immediate strSQL;
endJustin