How to Sort Results by Order of Values in an \'IN\' Clause in MySQL?

How to Sort Results by Order of Values in a SELECT Statement's "IN" Clause in MySQL

When retrieving a set of records using an "IN" clause in a SELECT statement, the resulting order of the rows may not align with the order of the values specified in the clause, leaving the results unordered. To resolve this, a common approach is to establish a temporary table and employ a join operation. However, there is a more straightforward and efficient solution.

Utilizing the FIELD() function, you can specify the desired sorting order within the "IN" clause itself. This function evaluates a value against a list of provided arguments, returning the position of the first argument it matches. By ordering the arguments in the desired sequence, you can effectively sort the results based on the values in the "IN" clause.

For instance, considering the following SELECT statement:

<code class="sql">SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE id IN (5,2,6,8,12,1);</code>

To sort the results in the order of the values specified in the "IN" clause, you can modify the query as follows:

<code class="sql">SELECT * FROM your_table
WHERE id IN (5,2,6,8,12,1)
ORDER BY FIELD(id,5,2,6,8,12,1);</code>

By specifying the values in the desired sorting order as arguments to the FIELD() function, the results will be returned in that exact sequence. This eliminates the need for a temporary table and a join, providing a simpler and more efficient solution to ordering results based on "IN" clause values.

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