Sort records with special characters like '2321/78/54-6'

To sort, use ORDER BY SUBSTRING(). Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
   -> (
   -> Value varchar(40)
   -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.59 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('2321/78/54-6')
   -> ;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.15 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('2321/78/54-8');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.16 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('2321/78/54-5');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('2321/78/54-9');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.21 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select * from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+--------------+
| Value        |
+--------------+
| 2321/78/54-6 |
| 2321/78/54-8 |
| 2321/78/54-5 |
| 2321/78/54-9 |
+--------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Here is the query to sort records with special characters −

mysql> select * from DemoTable
   -> where Value like '2321/78/54%'
   -> order by substring(Value from 1 for 10),cast(substring(Value from 11) as decimal);

This will produce the following output −

+--------------+
| Value        |                                                                                             +--------------+
| 2321/78/54-9 |
| 2321/78/54-8 |
| 2321/78/54-6 |
| 2321/78/54-5 |
+--------------+
4 rows in set (0.05 sec)