Order string alpha numerically A1-1-1, A1-2-1, A1-10-1, A1-2-2, A1-2-3 etc - sql

Question

I have a column with different length strings which has dashes (-) that separates alphanumeric strings.
The string could look like "A1-2-3".
I need to order by first "A1" then "2" then "3"
I want to achieve the following order for the column:
A1
A1-1-1
A1-1-2
A1-1-3
A1-2-1
A1-2-2
A1-2-3
A1-7
A2-1-1
A2-1-2
A2-1-3
A2-2-1
A2-2-2
A2-2-3
A2-10-1
A2-10-2
A2-10-3
A10-1-1
A10-1-2
A10-1-3
A10-2-1
A10-2-2
A10-2-3
I can separate the string with the following code:
declare #string varchar(max) = 'A1-2-3'
declare #first varchar(max) = SUBSTRING(#string,1,charindex('-',#string)-1)
declare #second varchar(max) = substring(#string, charindex('-',#string) + 1, charindex('-',reverse(#string))-1)
declare #third varchar(max) = right(#string,charindex('-',reverse(#string))-1)
select #first, #second, #third
With the above logic I thought that I could use the following:
Note this only regards strings with 2 dashes
select barcode from tabelWithBarcodes
order by
case when len(barcode) - len(replace(barcode,'-','')) = 2 then
len(SUBSTRING(barcode,1,charindex('-',barcode)-1))
end
, case when len(barcode) - len(replace(barcode,'-','')) = 2 then
SUBSTRING(barcode,1,(charindex('-',barcode)-1))
end
, case when len(barcode) - len(replace(barcode,'-','')) = 2 then
len(substring(barcode, charindex('-',barcode) + 1, charindex('-',reverse(barcode))-1))
end
, case when len(barcode) - len(replace(barcode,'-','')) = 2 then
substring(barcode, charindex('-',barcode) + 1, charindex('-',reverse(barcode))-1)
end
, case when len(barcode) - len(replace(barcode,'-','')) = 2 then
len(right(barcode,charindex('-',reverse(barcode))-1))
end
, case when len(barcode) - len(replace(barcode,'-','')) = 2 then
right(barcode,charindex('-',reverse(barcode))-1)
end
But the sorting is not working for the second and third section of the string.
(I haven't added the code for checking if the string has only 1 or no dash in it for simplicity)
Not sure if I'm on the right path here.
Is anybody able to solve this?

Answer 1

This is not pretty, however...
USE Sandbox;
GO
WITH VTE AS(
SELECT V.SomeString
--Randomised order
FROM (VALUES ('A1-1-1'),
('A10-1-3'),
('A10-2-2'),
('A1-1-3'),
('A10-2-1'),
('A2-2-2'),
('A1-2-1'),
('A1-2-2'),
('A2-1-1'),
('A10-1-2'),
('B2-1-2'),
('A1'),
('A2-2-1'),
('A2-10-3'),
('A10-2-3'),
('A2-1-2'),
('B1-4'),
('A2-10-2'),
('A2-2-3'),
('A10-1-1'),
('A1-A1-3'),
('A1-7'),
('A2-10-1'),
('A2-1-3'),
('A1-1-2'),
('A1-2-3')) V(SomeString)),
Splits AS(
SELECT V.SomeString,
DS.Item,
DS.ItemNumber,
CONVERT(int,STUFF((SELECT '' + NG.token
FROM dbo.NGrams8k(DS.item,1) NG
WHERE TRY_CONVERT(int, NG.Token) IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY NG.position
FOR XML PATH('')),1,0,'')) AS NumericPortion
FROM VTE V
CROSS APPLY dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(V.SomeString,'-') DS),
Pivoted AS(
SELECT S.SomeString,
MIN(CASE V.P1 WHEN S.Itemnumber THEN REPLACE(S.Item, S.NumericPortion,'') END) AS P1Alpha,
MIN(CASE V.P1 WHEN S.Itemnumber THEN S.NumericPortion END) AS P1Numeric,
MIN(CASE V.P2 WHEN S.Itemnumber THEN REPLACE(S.Item, S.NumericPortion,'') END) AS P2Alpha,
MIN(CASE V.P2 WHEN S.Itemnumber THEN S.NumericPortion END) AS P2Numeric,
MIN(CASE V.P3 WHEN S.Itemnumber THEN REPLACE(S.Item, S.NumericPortion,'') END) AS P3Alpha,
MIN(CASE V.P3 WHEN S.Itemnumber THEN S.NumericPortion END) AS P3Numeric
FROM Splits S
CROSS APPLY (VALUES(1,2,3)) AS V(P1,P2,P3)
GROUP BY S.SomeString)
SELECT P.SomeString
FROM Pivoted P
ORDER BY P.P1Alpha,
P.P1Numeric,
P.P2Alpha,
P.P2Numeric,
P.P3Alpha,
P.P3Numeric;
This outputs:
A1
A1-1-1
A1-1-2
A1-1-3
A1-2-1
A1-2-2
A1-2-3
A1-7
A1-A1-3
A2-1-1
A2-1-2
A2-1-3
A2-2-1
A2-2-2
A2-2-3
A2-10-1
A2-10-2
A2-10-3
A10-1-1
A10-1-2
A10-1-3
A10-2-1
A10-2-2
A10-2-3
B1-4
B2-1-2
This makes use of 2 user defined functions. Firstly or DelimitedSplit8k_Lead (I used DelimitedSplit8k as I don't have the other on my sandbox at the moment). Then you also have NGrams8k.
I really should explain how this works, but yuck... (edit coming).
OK... (/sigh) What it does. Firstly, we split the data into its relevant parts using delimitedsplit8k(_lead). Then, within the SELECT we use FOR XML PATH to get (only) the nuemrical part of that string (For example, for 'A10' we get '10') and we convert it to a numerical value (an int).
Then we pivot that data out into respective parts. The alphanumerical part, and the numerical part. So, for the value 'A10-A1-12' we end up with the row:
'A', 10, 'A', 1, 12
Then, now that we've pivoted the data, we sort it by each column individually. And voila.
This will fall over if you have a value like 'A1A' or '1B1', and honestly, I'm not changing it to catter for that. This was messy, and really isn't what the RDBMS should be doing.

Answer 2

Up to 3 dashes can be covered by fiddling with replace & parsename & patindex:
declare #TabelWithBarcodes table (id int primary key identity(1,1), barcode varchar(20) not null, unique (barcode));
insert into #TabelWithBarcodes (barcode) values
('2-2-3'),('A2-2-2'),('A2-2-1'),('A2-10-3'),('A2-10-2'),('A2-10-1'),('A2-1-3'),('A2-1-2'),('A2-1-1'),
('A10-2-3'),('A10-2-2'),('A10-2-10'),('A10-1-3'),('AA10-A111-2'),('A10-1-1'),
('A1-7'),('A1-2-3'),('A1-2-12'),('A1-2-1'),('A1-1-3'),('B1-1-2'),('A1-1-1'),('A1'),('A10-10-1'),('A12-10-1'), ('AB1-2-E1') ;
with cte as
(
select barcode,
replace(BarCode, '-', '.')
+ replicate('.0', 3 - (len(BarCode)-len(replace(BarCode, '-', '')))) as x
from #TabelWithBarcodes
)
select *
, substring(parsename(x,4), 1, patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,4))-1)
,cast(substring(parsename(x,4), patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,4)), 10) as int)
,substring(parsename(x,3), 1, patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,3))-1)
,cast(substring(parsename(x,3), patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,3)), 10) as int)
,substring(parsename(x,2), 1, patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,2))-1)
,cast(substring(parsename(x,2), patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,2)), 10) as int)
,substring(parsename(x,1), 1, patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,1))-1)
,cast(substring(parsename(x,1), patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,1)), 10) as int)
from cte
order by
substring(parsename(x,4), 1, patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,4))-1)
,cast(substring(parsename(x,4), patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,4)), 10) as int)
,substring(parsename(x,3), 1, patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,3))-1)
,cast(substring(parsename(x,3), patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,3)), 10) as int)
,substring(parsename(x,2), 1, patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,2))-1)
,cast(substring(parsename(x,2), patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,2)), 10) as int)
,substring(parsename(x,1), 1, patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,1))-1)
,cast(substring(parsename(x,1), patindex('%[0-9]%',parsename(x,1)), 10) as int)
extend each barcode to 4 groups by adding trailing .0 if missing
split each barcode in 4 groups
split each group in leading characters and trailing digits
sort by the leading character first
then by casting the digits as numeric
See db<>fiddle

Answer 3

An alterative approach would be to use your technique to split the string into its 3 component parts, then left pad those strings with leading zeros (or characters of your choice). That avoids any issues where the string may contain alphanumerics rather than just numerics. However, it does mean that strings containing different length alphabetic characters may not be sorted as you may expect... Here's the code to play with (using the definitions from #dnoeth's excellent answer):
;with cte as
(
select barcode
, case
when barcode like '%-%' then
substring(barcode,1,charindex('-',barcode)-1)
else
barcode
end part1
, case
when barcode like '%-%' then
substring(barcode, charindex('-',barcode) + 1, case
when barcode like '%-%-%' then
(charindex('-',barcode,charindex('-',barcode) + 1)) - 1
else
len(barcode)
end
- charindex('-',barcode))
else
''
end part2
, case
when barcode like '%-%-%' then
right(barcode,charindex('-',reverse(barcode))-1) --note: assumes you don't have %-%-%-%
else
''
end part3
from #TabelWithBarcodes
)
select barcode
, part1, part2, part3
, right('0000000000' + coalesce(part1,''), 10) lpad1
, right('0000000000' + coalesce(part2,''), 10) lpad2
, right('0000000000' + coalesce(part3,''), 10) lpad3
from cte
order by lpad1, lpad2, lpad3
DBFiddle Example