Numbers in Disguise: Sorting Varchar as Numerics in MySQL

When dealing with structured data, it's often necessary to manipulate numeric values. However, sometimes data is stored as strings (VARCHAR) due to various reasons. This can create challenges when trying to perform mathematical operations or sorting, as strings are not inherently numeric in nature.

In this instance, the question arises: how can we sort a VARCHAR column containing numbers as actual numbers in MySQL?

The Magic of String to Number Conversion

The simplest and most effective solution lies in leveraging MySQL's inherent ability to convert strings to numbers. By multiplying the VARCHAR column by 1, we essentially force MySQL to interpret it as a numeric value.

SELECT *
FROM tbl
ORDER BY number_as_char * 1;

This query achieves the desired result, sorting the column as numbers. Additionally, this technique has several advantages:

• Robustness: It can handle errors that would otherwise lead to underflow or incorrect results.
• Flexibility: It can accommodate non-numeric values in the column, ignoring them during sorting.
• Alphanumeric Stripping: Alphanumeric values like "123A" will have the numeric portion extracted, allowing them to be sorted correctly.

In conclusion, by cautiously converting strings to numbers using multiplication, we can effectively sort VARCHAR columns as numerics in MySQL, providing us with more flexibility and precision in data handling.