Postgres - User defined order sequence

Question

I have a column in a database table that may contain one of a limited amount of strings: ["Recht", "Abteilung", "Strecke", "Stelle", "Gemarkung", ...].

I want to perform queries to the table that order the result according to this column, but not alphanumerical but user-defined, i.e. "Recht" before "Abteilung" followed by "Strecke" ...

Is it possible to use a user-defined order like this?

order by case when column='Recht' then 1 when column='Abteilung' then 2 end case Something like this — Sergey
– Sergey, Commented Jun 4, 2021 at 7:45
No need to downvote though, this is a valid question with a useful answer. — Lokomotywa
– Lokomotywa, Commented Jun 4, 2021 at 7:48

Gordon Linoff · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-04 11:49:01Z

2

A simple way to do this in Postgres uses arrays:

order by array_position(array['Recht', 'Abteilung', 'Strecke', 'Stelle', 'Gemarkung'], 'a_column') nulls last

The use of an array makes the logic quite concise -- and more maintainable. The array can also be passed in as a parameter, which can be quite convenient.

answered Jun 4, 2021 at 11:49

Gordon Linoff

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