CASE WHEN statement for ORDER BY clause

Question

I am using SQL Server 2008 R2.

I want the priority based sorting for records in a table.

So that I am using CASE WHEN statement in ORDER BY clause. The ORDER BY clause is as below :

ORDER BY 
CASE WHEN TblList.PinRequestCount <> 0 THEN TblList.PinRequestCount desc, TblList.LastName ASC, TblList.FirstName ASC, TblList.MiddleName ASC END, 
CASE WHEN TblList.HighCallAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.HighCallAlertCount desc, TblList.LastName ASC, TblList.FirstName ASC, TblList.MiddleName ASC END,
Case WHEN TblList.HighAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.HighAlertCount DESC, TblList.LastName ASC, TblList.FirstName ASC, TblList.MiddleName ASC END,
CASE WHEN TblList.MediumCallAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.MediumCallAlertCount DESC, TblList.LastName ASC, TblList.FirstName ASC, TblList.MiddleName ASC END,
Case WHEN TblList.MediumAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.MediumAlertCount DESC, TblList.LastName ASC, TblList.FirstName ASC, Patlist.MiddleName ASC END

But it gives Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'desc'

Any solution?

Also I can have:

TblList.PinRequestCount <> 0 and TblList.HighCallAlertCount <> 0 and
TblList.HighAlertCount <> 0` and TblList.MediumCallAlertCount <> 0 and  
TblList.MediumAlertCount <> 0 

at the same time.

Answer 1

CASE is an expression - it returns a single scalar value (per row). It can't return a complex part of the parse tree of something else, like an ORDER BY clause of a SELECT statement.

It looks like you just need:

ORDER BY 
CASE WHEN TblList.PinRequestCount <> 0 THEN TblList.PinRequestCount END desc,
CASE WHEN TblList.HighCallAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.HighCallAlertCount END desc, 
Case WHEN TblList.HighAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.HighAlertCount END DESC,
CASE WHEN TblList.MediumCallAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.MediumCallAlertCount END DESC,
Case WHEN TblList.MediumAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.MediumAlertCount END DESC,
TblList.LastName ASC, TblList.FirstName ASC, TblList.MiddleName ASC

Or possibly:

ORDER BY 
CASE
   WHEN TblList.PinRequestCount <> 0 THEN TblList.PinRequestCount
   WHEN TblList.HighCallAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.HighCallAlertCount
   WHEN TblList.HighAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.HighAlertCount
   WHEN TblList.MediumCallAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.MediumCallAlertCount
   WHEN TblList.MediumAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.MediumAlertCount
END desc,
TblList.LastName ASC, TblList.FirstName ASC, TblList.MiddleName ASC

It's a little tricky to tell which of the above (or something else) is what you're looking for because you've a) not explained what actual sort order you're trying to achieve, and b) not supplied any sample data and expected results, from which we could attempt to deduce the actual sort order you're trying to achieve.

---

This may be the answer we're looking for:

ORDER BY 
CASE
   WHEN TblList.PinRequestCount <> 0 THEN 5
   WHEN TblList.HighCallAlertCount <> 0 THEN 4
   WHEN TblList.HighAlertCount <> 0 THEN 3
   WHEN TblList.MediumCallAlertCount <> 0 THEN 2
   WHEN TblList.MediumAlertCount <> 0 THEN 1
END desc,
CASE
   WHEN TblList.PinRequestCount <> 0 THEN TblList.PinRequestCount
   WHEN TblList.HighCallAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.HighCallAlertCount
   WHEN TblList.HighAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.HighAlertCount
   WHEN TblList.MediumCallAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.MediumCallAlertCount
   WHEN TblList.MediumAlertCount <> 0 THEN TblList.MediumAlertCount
END desc,
TblList.LastName ASC, TblList.FirstName ASC, TblList.MiddleName ASC