Plsql-Order by Issue

Question

Hi all,
I have an interesting issue with the below SELECT.
Its about using ORDER BY clause to sort.(am doing it with a variable "p_sortby".)
Order by can be used by column name or column position, (1, 2, … etc. ).
Somehow, if I use position in the PL/SQL, it doesn’t work.
So I have to use column name which we can’t simply passing a varchar2 string there,
we need to use real column name. I noticed that it only applies to varchar2 type column though.
It doesn’t apply to for instance, a number column.
Can you all please advise me on this kind of issue about how to solve.
I am editing the code section because now the question is very simplified as to what is the issue?
Let’s say p_sortby = ‘memberCount’ in this case, I passed it as first argument in decode(),
select distinct gl.group_id,
      decode('memberCount', 'name', gl.group_name_key,'description', gl.group_description_key, 'memberCount', gl.member_count) as p_sortby,                                    
                                               gl.group_name,
                                               gl.group_description,
                                               gl.status_code,
                                               gl.member_count,
                                               (select grpp.group_name
                                                  from clm_test_relationship grel join clm_test grpp
                                                       on grel.parent_group_id =
                                                            grpp.group_id
                                                 where grel.child_group_id =
                                                          gl.group_id)
                                                         as parent_group_name,
                                               gl.group_name_key,
                                               gl.group_description_key
                                          from clm_test gl
                                         where gl.group_org_id = '3909'
                                           and (   gl.group_name_key like
                                                          '%' || 'GROUP' || '%'                                               
Order by 2;                                               
It doesn’t work.
But if I pass ‘name’ as first argument in decode, it works.. That’s my original issue about why it doesn’t apply on memberCount. Edited by: user_7000011 on Apr 29, 2009 9:35 PM

Answer 1

Presently,I have this SELECT which returns data ordered as given below.
select distinct gl.group_id,
                                               gl.group_name,
                                               gl.group_description,
                                               gl.status_code,
                                               gl.member_count,
                                               (select grpp.group_name
                                                  from test_group_relationship grel join test_group grpp
                                                       on grel.parent_group_id =
                                                            grpp.group_id
                                                 where grel.child_group_id =
                                                          gl.group_id)
                                                         as parent_group_name,
                                               gl.group_name_key,
                                               gl.group_description_key
                                          from test_group gl
                                         where gl.group_org_id = '3909'
                                           and (   gl.group_name_key like
                                                          '%' || 'GROUP' || '%'
                               order by gl.group_name_key, convert (gl.group_name,     , 'WE8EBCDIC500')
The output is below.I have tried indenting the columns to paste the data.
GROUP_NAME                                            GROUP_NAME_KEY
Add Group Basic Flow                                 ADD GROUP BASIC FLOW
Administrative Group                                   ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP
Amy Group 33                                             AMY GROUP 33
Amy Test Group 1                                         AMY TEST GROUP 1
another add group test from matt                     ANOTHER ADD GROUP TEST FROM MATT***My Question is in the FIELD GROUP_NAME--> how can i SORT DATA using ORDER BY so that lowercase letters will be sorted before uppercase letters.*
Expected output is :-
the row with GROUP_NAME value-- "another add group test from matt" has to come at the first place.This way lowercase letters are sorted first and then UPPER CASE.
Please help me .The order by on GROUP_NAME_KEY has to be mantained and it stores data in CAPS