Custom sorting by month name in SQL Server - sql

Question

I have a table where for some dates a certain number of entries are placed. Here is the table structure :
ID EntryName Entries DateOfEntry
1 A 20 2016-01-17
2 B 22 2016-01-29
3 C 23 2016-02-17
4 D 19 2016-02-17
5 E 29 2016-03-17
6 F 30 2016-03-17
7 G 43 2016-04-17
8 H 10 2016-04-17
9 I 5 2016-05-17
10 J 120 2016-05-17
11 K 220 2016-06-17
12 L 210 2016-06-17
13 M 10 2016-07-17
14 N 20 2016-07-17
15 O 15 2016-08-17
16 P 17 2016-08-17
17 Q 19 2016-09-17
18 R 23 2016-09-17
19 S 43 2016-10-17
20 T 56 2016-10-17
21 U 65 2016-11-17
22 V 78 2016-11-17
23 W 12 2016-12-17
24 X 23 2016-12-17
25 Y 43 2016-02-17
26 Z 67 2016-03-17
27 AA 35 2015-01-17
28 AB 23 2015-01-29
29 AC 43 2015-02-17
30 AD 35 2015-02-17
31 AE 45 2015-03-17
32 AF 23 2015-03-17
33 AG 43 2015-04-17
34 AH 19 2015-04-17
35 AI 21 2015-05-17
36 AJ 13 2015-05-17
37 AK 22 2015-06-17
38 AL 45 2015-06-17
39 AM 66 2015-07-17
40 AN 77 2015-07-17
41 AO 89 2015-08-17
42 AP 127 2015-08-17
43 AQ 19 2015-09-17
44 AR 223 2015-09-17
45 AS 143 2015-10-17
46 AT 36 2015-10-17
47 AU 45 2015-11-17
48 AV 28 2015-11-17
49 AW 72 2015-12-17
50 AX 24 2015-12-17
51 AY 46 2015-02-17
52 AZ 62 2015-03-17
The column EntryName is the entry identifier, the column Entries has the total number of entries for the date specified in the column DateOfEntry.
I am trying to formulate a query where the total number of entries are displayed on a month-wise basis. I currently have this query :
SELECT DateName(MONTH, e.DateOfEntry) AS MonthOfEntry,
MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) AS MonthNumber,
SUM(e.Entries) AS TotalEntries
FROM #entry e
GROUP BY MONTH(e.DateOfEntry), DateName(MONTH,e.DateOfEntry)
ORDER BY MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) ASC
which works fine as far as displaying the results are concerned. However, my issue here is that I need to sort the results on a month-wise basis where the starting month would be dynamic i.e. arising from a parameter (supplied by the user).
This means that if the user selects May of 2015 the results should be sorted from May 2015 to April 2016. Similarly, if the user selects October 2015, the results would be displayed from October 2015 to September 2016.
How would I go about getting this condition within the ORDER BY clause ?

Answer 1

You can put an offset into the ORDER BY using modulo arithmetic. For April:
ORDER BY (MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) + 12 - 4) % 12
--------------------------------------^ month number to start with
(The + 12 is simply so I don't have to remember if % returns negative numbers with negative operands.)
If you want the results chronologically, you can instead do:
ORDER BY MIN(e.DateOfEntry)

Answer 2

You could use the belosw in order by
ORDER BY YEAR(e.DATEOFENTRY),
DATEPART(MM,e.DAREOFENTRY)
This will sort the result first for Year and next for month.
Here you need to specify these same columns in Select.

Answer 3

If I understood you correctly
"This means that if the user selects May of 2015 the results should be sorted from May 2015 to April 2016. Similarly, if the user selects October 2015, the results would be displayed from October 2015 to September 2016."
this should work:
SAMPLE DATA:
IF OBJECT_ID('tempdb..#entry') IS NOT NULL
DROP TABLE #entry;
CREATE TABLE #entry(ID INT ,EntryName VARCHAR(10) , Entries INT , DateOfEntry DATE);
INSERT INTO #entry (ID ,EntryName ,Entries ,DateOfEntry)
VALUES
(1 ,'A', 20 ,'2016-01-17'),
(2 ,'B', 22 ,'2016-01-29'),
(3 ,'C', 23 ,'2016-02-17'),
(4 ,'D', 19 ,'2016-02-17'),
(5 ,'E', 29 ,'2016-03-17'),
(6 ,'F', 30 ,'2016-03-17'),
(7 ,'G', 43 ,'2016-04-17'),
(8 ,'H', 10 ,'2016-04-17'),
(9 ,'I', 5 ,'2016-05-17'),
(10,'J', 120 ,'2016-05-17'),
(11,'K', 220 ,'2016-06-17'),
(12,'L', 210 ,'2016-06-17'),
(13,'M', 10 ,'2016-07-17'),
(14,'N', 20 ,'2016-07-17'),
(15,'O', 15 ,'2016-08-17'),
(16,'P', 17 ,'2016-08-17'),
(17,'Q', 19 ,'2016-09-17'),
(18,'R', 23 ,'2016-09-17'),
(19,'S', 43 ,'2016-10-17'),
(20,'T', 56 ,'2016-10-17'),
(21,'U', 65 ,'2016-11-17'),
(22,'V', 78 ,'2016-11-17'),
(23,'W', 12 ,'2016-12-17'),
(24,'X', 23 ,'2016-12-17'),
(25,'Y', 43 ,'2016-02-17'),
(26,'Z', 67 ,'2016-03-17'),
(27,'AA',35 ,'2015-01-17'),
(28,'AB',23 ,'2015-01-29'),
(29,'AC',43 ,'2015-02-17'),
(30,'AD',35 ,'2015-02-17'),
(31,'AE',45 ,'2015-03-17'),
(32,'AF',23 ,'2015-03-17'),
(33,'AG',43 ,'2015-04-17'),
(34,'AH',19 ,'2015-04-17'),
(35,'AI',21 ,'2015-05-17'),
(36,'AJ',13 ,'2015-05-17'),
(37,'AK',22 ,'2015-06-17'),
(38,'AL',45 ,'2015-06-17'),
(39,'AM',66 ,'2015-07-17'),
(40,'AN',77 ,'2015-07-17'),
(41,'AO',89 ,'2015-08-17'),
(42,'AP',127 ,'2015-08-17'),
(43,'AQ',19 ,'2015-09-17'),
(44,'AR',223 ,'2015-09-17'),
(45,'AS',143 ,'2015-10-17'),
(46,'AT',36 ,'2015-10-17'),
(47,'AU',45 ,'2015-11-17'),
(48,'AV',28 ,'2015-11-17'),
(49,'AW',72 ,'2015-12-17'),
(50,'AX',24 ,'2015-12-17'),
(51,'AY',46 ,'2015-02-17'),
(52,'AZ',62 ,'2015-03-17')
QUERY WITH PARAMS:
DECLARE #Month VARCHAR(2) = '05', #Year VARCHAR(4) = '2015'
SELECT DateName(MONTH, e.DateOfEntry) AS MonthOfEntry,
MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) AS MonthNumber,
SUM(e.Entries) AS TotalEntries
FROM #entry e
WHERE CAST(e.DateOfEntry AS DATE) >= CAST( #Year+#Month+'01' AS DATE)
GROUP BY MONTH(e.DateOfEntry), DateName(MONTH,e.DateOfEntry)
ORDER BY MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) ASC
RESULTS:

Answer 4

add a where clause for the query
WHERE MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) < User.Month AND YEAR(e.DateOfEntry) < User.Year AND MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) > (User.Month-1) AND YEAR(e.DateOfEntry) > (User.Year+1)

Answer 5

Assuming your parameter is an Integer called #FirstMonth, you could get the proper month order using:
Case
WHEN MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) < #FirstMonth then MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) + 12
ELSE MONTH(e.DateOfEntry)
END AS MonthNumber

Answer 6

Of all the answers and suggestions I have come across here, I find this way (suggested by xQbert in the question's comments) to be the simplest one :
SELECT DateName(MONTH, e.DateOfEntry) + ' ' + CONVERT(NVARCHAR(100), YEAR(e.DateOfEntry)) AS MonthOfEntry,
MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) AS MonthNumber,
SUM(e.Entries) AS TotalEntries
FROM Entry e
WHERE e.DateOfEntry BETWEEN #StartDate AND (DATEADD(YEAR, 1, #StartDate))
GROUP BY MONTH(e.DateOfEntry), DateName(MONTH,e.DateOfEntry), YEAR(e.DateOfEntry)
ORDER BY YEAR(e.DateOfEntry) ASC, MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) ASC
A fiddle to demonstrate this : http://rextester.com/CJFFP5640
Initially, I was using the following query :
SELECT sortingList.MonthOfEntry,
sortingList.TotalEntries,
sortingList.MonthNumber
FROM (
SELECT DateName(MONTH, DATEADD(MONTH, MONTH(e.DateOfEntry), 0) - 1) + ' ' + CONVERT(nvarchar(20),YEAR(e.DateOfEntry)) AS MonthOfEntry,
SUM(e.Entries) as TotalEntries,
CASE
WHEN ((MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) - MONTH(#StartDate)) > 0)
THEN (MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) - MONTH(#StartDate)) + 1
WHEN ((MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) - MONTH(#StartDate)) = 0)
THEN 1
ELSE
((12 - MONTH(#StartDate)) + (MONTH(e.DateOfEntry))) + 1
END
AS MonthNumber
FROM Entry e
WHERE e.DateOfEntry >= #StartDate AND e.DateOfEntry < DATEADD(YEAR, 1, #StartDate)
GROUP BY DateName(MONTH, DATEADD(MONTH, MONTH(e.DateOfEntry), 0) - 1), YEAR(e.DateOfEntry), MONTH(e.DateOfEntry) - MONTH(#StartDate), MONTH(e.DateOfEntry)
) sortingList
ORDER BY sortingList.MonthNumber ASC
Here's an Fiddle to demonstrate this : http://rextester.com/LEVD30653
Explanation (non TL;DR)
You can see that it's essentially the same WHERE clause. However, the query at the top uses much simpler logic for sorting and is more fluent and readable.
Do note that the second solution (using the CASE statement) sorts the month numbers as per the user-provided month number i.e. if the user provides December 2015, then the second solution will number Dec 2015 as 1, January 2016 as 2, February 2016 as 3 and so on and so forth. This might be more beneficial in cases where you want to work on top of this data.
As far as my use-case is concerned, this makes more sense. However, as far as the scope of the question is concerned, the query at the top is the best one.