MySQL query to place a specific record on the top

For this, you can use the ORDER BY CASE statement. Let us first create a table −

mysql> create table DemoTable
(
   StudentName varchar(100),
   StudentMarks int
);
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.97 sec)

Insert some records in the table using insert command −

mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Chris',45);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.21 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('John',67);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.18 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('David',89);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.46 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('John',98);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('Mike',79);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.12 sec)
mysql> insert into DemoTable values('John',99);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.11 sec)

Display all records from the table using select statement −

mysql> select *from DemoTable;

This will produce the following output −

+-------------+--------------+
| StudentName | StudentMarks |
+-------------+--------------+
| Chris       |           45 |
| John        |           67 |
| David       |           89 |
| John        |           98 |
| Mike        |           79 |
| John        |           99 |
+-------------+--------------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Following is the query to place a specific record on the top −

mysql> select *from DemoTable order by case StudentName when 'John' then 2 else 3 end, StudentName, StudentMarks;

This will produce the following output −

+-------------+--------------+
| StudentName | StudentMarks |
+-------------+--------------+
| John        |           67 |
| John        |           98 |
| John        |           99 |
| Chris       |           45 |
| David       |           89 |
| Mike        |           79 |
+-------------+--------------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)