Sort values that contain letters and symbols in custom order with MySQL

For custom order, use ORDER BY FIELD(). Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
(
   Title varchar(100)
);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.62 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Java_1+');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('MySQL_23+');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.10 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('MongoDB++');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('C++_23');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+-----------+
| Title     |
+-----------+
| Java_1+   |
| MySQL_23+ |
| MongoDB++ |
| C++_23    |
+-----------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to sort values that contain letters and symbols in a custom order −

mysql> select *from DemoTable order by field(Title,'MySQL_23+','C++_23','Java_1+','MongoDB++');

This will produce the following output −

+-----------+
| Title     |
+-----------+
| MySQL_23+ |
| C++_23    |
| Java_1+   |
| MongoDB++ |
+-----------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)