Display order of a SQL Query without order by clause - sql

Question

I am writing a simple query in SQL Server:
Select
EmpId, EmpName, Sal
from
Emp
where
EmpId in (10,9,5,7,3,8);
I want to get the output in a same order which is given i.e; 10,9,5,7,3,8
Actually whatever I'll give the result will display with given order without
order by ascending or descending.
How can I do that? Please help.

Answer 1

No way to do this natively.
Try:
SELECT EmpId,EmpName,Sal
FROM Emp
WHERE EmpId IN (10,9,5,7,3,8)
ORDER BY CASE EmpId
WHEN 10 THEN 1
WHEN 9 THEN 2
WHEN 5 THEN 3
WHEN 7 THEN 4
WHEN 3 THEN 5
WHEN 8 THEN 6
ELSE 7
END;

Answer 2

You can use a table variable to pass the inputs. You must insert the records into this table variable in the desired order.
Declare #empids table(id int identity(1,1),empid int)
insert into #empids values(10),(9),(5),(7),(3),(8)
Select e.EmpId,e.empname,e.sal from Emp e
join #empids t on e.EmpId = t.empid
order by t.id
Try this.

Answer 3

You can use CHARINDEX function in an odd way: search for the id in the comma separated list and order the result by the position.
Consider this list for example 10,9,5,7,3,8... the substring 10 appears at 1st position while 9 appears at 4th. Just order by the substring position.
CREATE TABLE Emp
(EmpId int, EmpName varchar(100), Sal int)
;
INSERT INTO Emp
(EmpId, EmpName, Sal)
VALUES
(1, 'John', NULL),
(2, 'Jane', NULL),
(3, 'Smith', NULL),
(4, 'Doe', NULL),
(5, 'Ben', NULL),
(6, 'Steve', NULL),
(7, 'Andrew', NULL),
(8, 'Simon', NULL),
(9, 'Jack', NULL),
(10, 'Allen', NULL)
;
SELECT
EmpId, EmpName, Sal
FROM
Emp
WHERE
EmpId in (10,9,5,7,3,8)
ORDER BY
CHARINDEX(CONCAT(',', EmpId, ','), CONCAT(',', '10,9,5,7,3,8', ','))
;
Result:
EmpId | EmpName | Sal
------+---------+-----
10 | Allen | NULL
9 | Jack | NULL
5 | Ben | NULL
7 | Andrew | NULL
3 | Smith | NULL
8 | Simon | NULL

Answer 4

You can do this dynamically if your list is a comma-delimited-string. First, you must have a splitter function. Here is the DelimitedSplit8k written by Jeff Moden:
CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[DelimitedSplit8K](
#pString VARCHAR(8000), #pDelimiter CHAR(1)
)
RETURNS TABLE WITH SCHEMABINDING AS
RETURN
WITH E1(N) AS (
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 1
)
,E2(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E1 a, E1 b)
,E4(N) AS (SELECT 1 FROM E2 a, E2 b)
,cteTally(N) AS(
SELECT TOP (ISNULL(DATALENGTH(#pString), 0)) ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY (SELECT NULL)) FROM E4
)
,cteStart(N1) AS(
SELECT 1 UNION ALL
SELECT t.N+1 FROM cteTally t WHERE SUBSTRING(#pString, t.N, 1) = #pDelimiter
),
cteLen(N1, L1) AS(
SELECT
s.N1,
ISNULL(NULLIF(CHARINDEX(#pDelimiter, #pString, s.N1),0) - s.N1, 8000)
FROM cteStart s
)
SELECT
ItemNumber = ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY l.N1),
Item = SUBSTRING(#pString, l.N1, l.L1)
FROM cteLen l
Then, you declare the list of empIds as csv string and use the splitter:
DECLARE #empIds VARCHAR(MAX) = '10,9,5,7,3,8';
SELECT e.EmpId, e.EmpName, e.Sal
FROM Emp e
INNER JOIN dbo.DelimitedSplit8K(#empIds, ',') s
ON s.Item = l.EmpId
ORDER BY s.ItemNumber

Answer 5

Following query will give you the exact result (without order by):
SELECT EmpId,EmpName,Sal
FROM Emp
WHERE EmpId IN (10)
union all
SELECT EmpId,EmpName,Sal
FROM Emp
WHERE EmpId IN (9)
union all
SELECT EmpId,EmpName,Sal
FROM Emp
WHERE EmpId IN (5)
union all
SELECT EmpId,EmpName,Sal
FROM Emp
WHERE EmpId IN (7)
union all
SELECT EmpId,EmpName,Sal
FROM Emp
WHERE EmpId IN (3)
union all
SELECT EmpId,EmpName,Sal
FROM Emp
WHERE EmpId IN (8)

Answer 6

If Ids is a variable passed as input parameter to a stored procedure, you can split it using CTE.
--#inputIDs VARCHAR(300) => '10,9,5,7,3,8'
;WITH MyIds AS
(
SELECT 1 AS Position, CONVERT(INT, LEFT(#inputIds, CHARINDEX(',', #inputIDs)-1)) AS MyId,
RIGHT(#inputIds, LEN(#inputIds) - CHARINDEX(',', #inputIDs)) AS Remainder
WHERE CHARINDEX(',', #inputIDs)>0
UNION ALL
SELECT Position +1 AS Position, CONVERT(INT, LEFT(Remainder, CHARINDEX(',', Remainder)-1)) AS MyId,
RIGHT(Remainder, LEN(Remainder) - CHARINDEX(',', Remainder)) AS Remainder
FROM MyIds
WHERE CHARINDEX(',', Remainder)>0
UNION ALL
SELECT Position +1 AS Position, CONVERT(INT, Remainder) AS MyId,
NULL AS Remainder
FROM MyIds
WHERE CHARINDEX(',', Remainder)=0
)
SELECT e.EmpId, e.EmpName, e.Sal
FROM Emp AS e INNER JOIN MyIds AS a ON e.EmpId = a.MyId
ORDER BY a.Position

Answer 7

The simplest way to achieve this is probably to use a table-valued constructor as a table expression containing the ids with a sort value, then order on this value:
Select
Emp.EmpId, Emp.EmpName, Emp.Sal
from
Emp
Inner Join
(
Values
(10, 1),
(9, 2),
(5, 3),
(7, 4),
(3, 5),
(8, 6)
)
EmpIds (EmpId, Sort)
On
Emp.EmpId = EmpIds.EmpId
Order By
EmpIds.Sort Asc