Sorting off of a formatted date - sql

Question

I currently have a table set up which reports history data. I have
SELECT ACTIONTYPE,
BINNUM,
DSID,
LOCATIONNAME,
LOCATIONTYPE,
ORDNO,
ORIGREC,
convert(varchar(10),TIMEOFACTION, 101) +
right(convert(varchar(32),TIMEOFACTION,100),8) as TIMEOFACTION,
TOTALLIFE
FROM DLOCATIONHISTORY
ORDER BY TIMEOFACTION DESC
I have edited the TIMEOFACTION column so that it displays the date-formatted field as mm/dd/yyyy hh:mmAM/PM. However, the program that is referencing my query, is placing AM before PM because A comes before P. What is the best way to resolve my query to prevent this from happening? Is there a different ordering technique I could use?
My current reporting query shows:
**TIMEOFACTION**
12/13/2017 7:29AM
12/12/2017 10:07AM
12/12/2017 9:58AM
12/12/2017 1:51PM
12/12/2017 2:02PM
12/11/2017 11:01AM
When it should show:
**TIMEOFACTION**
12/13/2017 7:29AM
12/12/2017 2:02PM
12/12/2017 1:51PM
12/12/2017 10:07AM
12/12/2017 9:58AM
12/11/2017 11:01AM

Answer 1

LOL, just full reference column with table name or table alias:
SELECT ACTIONTYPE,
BINNUM,
DSID,
LOCATIONNAME,
LOCATIONTYPE,
ORDNO,
ORIGREC,
convert(varchar(10),TIMEOFACTION, 101) +
right(convert(varchar(32),TIMEOFACTION,100),8) as TIMEOFACTION,
TOTALLIFE
FROM DLOCATIONHISTORY
ORDER BY DLOCATIONHISTORY.TIMEOFACTION DESC --<-- here!
Simplified sample
MS SQL Server 2014 Schema Setup:
create table t ( i int, a char(1) );
insert into t values
(1,'a'),
(2,'b'),
(3,'c');
Query 1:
select -1*i as i, a
from t
order by t.i
Results:
| i | a |
|----|---|
| -1 | a |
| -2 | b |
| -3 | c |
Query 2:
select -1*i as i, a
from t
order by i
Results:
| i | a |
|----|---|
| -3 | c |
| -2 | b |
| -1 | a |

Answer 2

You can use a derived table with a column alias, then rename back to the original column name. For example:
DECLARE #table TABLE(TIMEOFACTION datetime)
INSERT INTO #table VALUES
('2017-12-13 07:29:00')
,('2017-12-12 10:07:00')
,('2017-12-12 09:58:00')
,('2017-12-12 13:51:00')
,('2017-12-12 14:02:00')
,('2017-12-11 11:01:00')
SELECT convert(varchar(10),dT.TIMEOFACTION2, 101)
+ right(convert(varchar(32),TIMEOFACTION2,100),8) as TIMEOFACTION
FROM (
SELECT TIMEOFACTION AS TIMEOFACTION2
FROM #table
) AS dT
ORDER BY TIMEOFACTION2 DESC
Produces:
TIMEOFACTION
12/13/2017 7:29AM
12/12/2017 2:02PM
12/12/2017 1:51PM
12/12/2017 10:07AM
12/12/2017 9:58AM
12/11/2017 11:01AM