Where in the order by

Question

I need to sort the order by with a value of one of the fields, not asc or desc, but by a specific value. Is that possible?

Answer 1

I too am having some problems understanding what you are wanting exactly... but is this it? Bit of a hack.. but I think it works the way you want it to.
CREATE TABLE JOBS
(DEPT_NUMBER NUMBER
,JOB_TITLE VARCHAR2(100)
,JOB_NUMBER NUMBER
,JOB_LOCATION VARCHAR(50)
INSERT INTO JOBS
SELECT
TRUNC(DBMS_RANDOM.VALUE(1,20)) DEPT_NUMBER
,DBMS_RANDOM.STRING('U',1) JOB_TITLE
,TRUNC(DBMS_RANDOM.VALUE(1,20)) JOB_NUMBER
,DBMS_RANDOM.STRING('U',2) JOB_LOCATION
FROM
DUAL
CONNECT BY LEVEL <= 500
INSERT INTO JOBS
SELECT
TRUNC(DBMS_RANDOM.VALUE(1,20)) DEPT_NUMBER
,'A' JOB_TITLE
,TRUNC(DBMS_RANDOM.VALUE(1,20)) JOB_NUMBER
,'MAIN OFFICE' JOB_LOCATION
FROM
DUAL
CONNECT BY LEVEL <= 20
COMMIT;
SQL> VARIABLE INPUT VARCHAR2(50);
SQL> EXEC :INPUT := 'MAIN OFFICE';
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
SQL> SET ECHO ON
SQL> SELECT * FROM JOBS WHERE JOB_TITLE='A' ORDER BY DECODE(JOB_LOCATION,:INPUT,'AAAA111'||JOB_LOCATION,JOB_LOCATION),DEPT_NUMBER;
DEPT_NUMBER JOB_TITLE  JOB_NUMBER JOB_LOCATION
          1 A                   9 MAIN OFFICE
          3 A                  12 MAIN OFFICE
          3 A                   2 MAIN OFFICE
          4 A                  17 MAIN OFFICE
          5 A                   8 MAIN OFFICE
          7 A                  12 MAIN OFFICE
          7 A                   2 MAIN OFFICE
          7 A                  13 MAIN OFFICE
          7 A                   4 MAIN OFFICE
          8 A                   1 MAIN OFFICE
          9 A                   3 MAIN OFFICE
          9 A                  13 MAIN OFFICE
         10 A                   4 MAIN OFFICE
         10 A                   5 MAIN OFFICE
         11 A                   7 MAIN OFFICE
         12 A                  17 MAIN OFFICE
         13 A                  14 MAIN OFFICE
         13 A                   8 MAIN OFFICE
         14 A                   4 MAIN OFFICE
         19 A                   6 MAIN OFFICE
         13 A                  12 BF
          6 A                   8 ET
         10 A                   9 MO
         19 A                  14 NU
         16 A                  19 PE
         17 A                  15 QT
         14 A                   6 SO
         11 A                  16 ST
         15 A                  18 WF
         13 A                  12 XU
          8 A                  10 YT
          6 A                  12 ZQ
32 rows selected.
SQL>So basically, whatever you pass as the office job location is forced to the top of the list.
Like I said, a hack, but works (for now).