CODEWITHSUNDEEP
postgresqlsql-order-by
Evil Elf
Evil Elf

Reputation: 2227

Order By Column Names

Is it possible to use the names of the actual columns for the order by clause?

I am using a view to let a client use a reporter writer (Pentaho) and this would make things easier on them.

To clarify, I want to put the results in alphabetical order of the column names themselves. I want to sort the data using the columns, not the data IN the columns.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 4726

Answers (4)

aarkerio
aarkerio

Reputation: 2354

In PostgreSQL you can try:

SELECT column_name, data_type FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS WHERE TABLE_NAME = 
 'my_table' ORDER BY column_name;

Upvotes: 2

Sam Choukri
Sam Choukri

Reputation: 1904

You can create the view with the columns in any order you like. Then SELECT * FROM your_view queries will return the columns in the order specified by the view.

Upvotes: 0

leonbloy
leonbloy

Reputation: 75916

If what you mean is to change the order of the columns themselves according to their names (that would make sense only if you are using SELECT *, I guess), I'm afraid that's not possible, at least not straightforwardly. And that sounds very unSQL, I'd say...

Upvotes: 2

Scott Marlowe
Scott Marlowe

Reputation: 8870

Sure, you can order by column name, column alias, or column position:

select a, b from table order by b;

select a as x, b as y from table order by x, y;

select a, b from table order by 1;

Upvotes: 1

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