Sort Alphanumeric Column with Different Lengths in MySQL

Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable1623
    -> (
    -> StudentCode varchar(20)
    -> );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.47 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable1623 values('STU-MIT-143');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.19 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable1623 values('STU-MIT-10');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable1623 values('STU-MIT-150');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.21 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable1623 values('STU-MIT-148');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.22 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select * from DemoTable1623;

This will produce the following output −

+-------------+
| StudentCode |
+-------------+
| STU-MIT-143 |
| STU-MIT-10  |
| STU-MIT-150 |
| STU-MIT-148 |
+-------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Here is the query to sort an alphanumeric column with different lengths in MySQL.

mysql> select * from DemoTable1623
    -> order by substring_index(StudentCode, '-', 1),
    -> substring_index(StudentCode, '-', -1) + 0;

This will produce the following output −

+-------------+
| StudentCode |
+-------------+
| STU-MIT-10  |
| STU-MIT-143 |
| STU-MIT-148 |
| STU-MIT-150 |
+-------------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)