MySQL ORDER BY with different ordering for some of the values as descending and others ascending?

You can use the field() for this. Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
   (
   Value int
   );
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.80 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values(10);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.18 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(70);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(60);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.14 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(56);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(81);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.44 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values(85);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.15 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

Output

+-------+
| Value |
+-------+
| 10    |
| 70    |
| 60    |
| 56    |
| 81    |
| 85    |
+-------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to ORDER BY specific 3 values as descending and rest of the as ascending order −

mysql> select *from DemoTable order by field(Value,60,70,81) desc;

Output

+-------+
| Value |
+-------+
| 81    |
| 70    |
| 60    |
| 10    |
| 56    |
| 85    |
+-------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)