Sorting values by escaping the html tags

Question

Hi Friends,
My problem is described below...
I am facing an issue where I need to sort (main title/ alternate title) by escaping the html tags.
eg 'Amex' should always be before 'Singer'
Amex in DB is like Amex.
Syngo in DB is like <i>Singer</i&gt
something can be --- <i>hello<i>
  sql.append("SELECT DISTINCT NVL(ItemDocMeta.xMainTitle, ItemDocMeta.xAlternateTitle) AS generatedPageTitle,");
other conditions
// order by
            sql.append(" ORDER BY LOWER(generatedPageTitle) ASC");
Is there any SQL function that can make it easier?
I tried using regex in the ith order by clause, but it doesnt work until i keep it in the select part. And I am unable to use regex in the select part with distinct.
Thanks

Answer 1

For example :
SQL> set scan off
SQL>
SQL>
SQL> with sample_data as (
  2      select 'again sort a column' str from dual union all
  3      select '<i>sort</i> a column' from dual union all
  4      select '&lt;i&gt;resort&lt;i&gt;' from dual
  5  )
  6  select str
  7  from sample_data
  8  order by regexp_replace(
  9             utl_i18n.unescape_reference(str)
10           , '</?[^>]+>'
11           )
12  ;
STR
again sort a column
&lt;i&gt;resort&lt;i&gt;
<i>sort</i> a column