Order By the First Number in a Set of Numbers in MySQL

To order by the first number in a set of numbers, use ORDER BY SUBSTRING_INDEX(). Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
(
   SetOfNumbers text
);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.53 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('245,654,76,89,98');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('2000,567,9090,6789');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.13 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('1001,90595,657,99');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.20 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+--------------------+
| SetOfNumbers       |
+--------------------+
| 245,654,76,89,98   |
| 2000,567,9090,6789 |
| 1001,90595,657,99  |
+--------------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to order by the first number in a set of numbers −

mysql> select *from DemoTable order by cast(substring_index(SetOfNumbers,',',1) as unsigned);

This will produce the following output −

+--------------------+
| SetOfNumbers       |
+--------------------+
| 245,654,76,89,98   |
| 1001,90595,657,99  |
| 2000,567,9090,6789 |
+--------------------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)