Ordering by the order of values in a SQL IN() clause

Question

Use MySQL's FIELD() function:

SELECT name, description, ...
FROM ...
WHERE id IN([ids, any order])
ORDER BY FIELD(id, [ids in order])

FIELD() will return the index of the first parameter that is equal to the first parameter (other than the first parameter itself).

FIELD('a', 'a', 'b', 'c')

will return 1

FIELD('a', 'c', 'b', 'a')

will return 3

This will do exactly what you want if you paste the ids into the IN() clause and the FIELD() function in the same order.

See following how to get sorted data.

SELECT ...
  FROM ...
 WHERE zip IN (91709,92886,92807,...,91356)
   AND user.status=1
ORDER 
    BY provider.package_id DESC 
     , FIELD(zip,91709,92886,92807,...,91356)
LIMIT 10

Two solutions that spring to mind:

1. order by case id when 123 then 1 when 456 then 2 else null end asc

2. order by instr(','||id||',',',123,456,') asc

(instr() is from Oracle; maybe you have locate() or charindex() or something like that)

If you want to do arbitrary sorting on a query using values inputted by the query in MS SQL Server 2008+, it can be done by creating a table on the fly and doing a join like so (using nomenclature from OP).

SELECT table1.name, table1.description ... 
FROM (VALUES (id1,1), (id2,2), (id3,3) ...) AS orderTbl(orderKey, orderIdx) 
LEFT JOIN table1 ON orderTbl.orderKey=table1.id
ORDER BY orderTbl.orderIdx

If you replace the VALUES statement with something else that does the same thing, but in ANSI SQL, then this should work on any SQL database.

Note: The second column in the created table (orderTbl.orderIdx) is necessary when querying record sets larger than 100 or so. I originally didn't have an orderIdx column, but found that with result sets larger than 100 I had to explicitly sort by that column; in SQL Server Express 2014 anyways.

SELECT ORDER_NO, DELIVERY_ADDRESS 
from IFSAPP.PURCHASE_ORDER_TAB 
where ORDER_NO in ('52000077','52000079','52000167','52000297','52000204','52000409','52000126') 
ORDER BY instr('52000077,52000079,52000167,52000297,52000204,52000409,52000126',ORDER_NO)

worked really great