There may be certain situations where you have to sort character-based columns in a particular order.

For example, Let us consider a table:

 --///////////////////////////////////SID	Subject		Marks---	------		-----1	Physics		801	Chemistry	751	Maths		901	Biology		702	Physics		652	Chemistry	702	Maths		802	Biology		60--///////////////////////////////////

Now you are asked to query a table in such a manner that Maths should come first, Physics second, Chemistry third, and Biology last for each StudentID.

To accomplish this, use T-SQL “Case” statement:

 --///////////////////////////////////select tblMarks.*from tblMarks  order by SID,	(case Subject		when 'Maths' then 1		when 'Physics' then 2		when 'Chemistry' then 3		when 'Biology' then 4		end ) ascSID	Subject		Marks---	------		-----1	Maths		901	Physics		801	Chemistry	751	Biology		702	Maths		802	Physics		652	Chemistry	702	Biology		60--///////////////////////////////////