Mysql ORDER BY specific value

Question

Suppose I have the following query:

SELECT id, name FROM table ORDER BY name

• 4, Ashley
• 1, Anna
• 2, David
• 3, Zach

How would I throw a particular name to the front of the order and then do the rest of the ordering, something like:

SELECT id, name FROM table ORDER BY name='david', name

• 1, David
• 4, Ashley
• 1, Anna
• 3, Zach

Answer 1

You are almost exactly there. You just need desc:

SELECT id, name
FROM table
ORDER BY (name = 'david') DESC, name;

MySQL treats booleans as integers, with true being "1" and false being "0". So, when it is true, the value is a "1". To put it first, you need to sort in descending order.