Sql Server query varchar data sort like int

Question

I have one table like

CREATE TABLE table_name
(
P_Id int,
amount varchar(50)
)

Data Like

Id amount
----------
1 2340
2 4568
3 10000

Now I want to sort table by amount but one problem is amount is varchar so it sort table like this

Id amount
----------
3 10000
1 2340
2 4568

but i want result like this

Id amount
----------
3 10000
2 4568
1 2340

what should i do ?

Answer 1

Cast amount column into Numeric in ORDER BY clause while selecting:

SELECT * FROM MyTable
ORDER BY CAST(amount AS Numeric(10,0)) DESC

You can change the decimal point value according to your requirement to get more precise result:

SELECT * FROM MyTable
ORDER BY CAST(amount AS Numeric(10,2)) DESC
                                   ^

Result:

Id	amount
3	10000
2	4568
1	2340

See this dbfiddle

Note: As @Ice suggested, this will fail if the amount field contains non numeric data like ab123 or xyz (obviously).

Answer 2

Try ABS():

SELECT * FROM MyTable ORDER BY ABS(MyCol) DESC;

SQL Fiddle

Answer 3

Try this

SELECT * FROM #varchar_field ORDER BY CASE WHEN ISNUMERIC(mixed_field) = 1 THEN CAST(mixed_field AS FLOAT) WHEN ISNUMERIC(LEFT(mixed_field,1)) = 0 THEN ASCII(LEFT(LOWER(mixed_field),1)) ELSE 2147483647 END

Ref: http://sqlserverplanet.com/tsql/how-to-order-numeric-values-in-a-varchar-field