mySQL custom sort order ORDER BY FIELD() issues

Question

I'm trying to sort the resutls of a SELECT statement using a custom order like so:

SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY FIELD(id,4,5,6) LIMIT 6

I was expecting to have returned rows with ids: 4,5,6,1,2,3 but instead I'm getting 1,2,3,7,8,9 . What am I doing wrong?

As a side note: Prior to running this query, I'm pulling this sort order from the database using a different SELECT with a GROUP_CONCAT function like so:

SELECT group_concat(clickID ORDER BY count DESC separator ',') from table2 WHERE searchphrase='$searchphrase'

This results in the 4,5,6 which is then used in the main query. Is there a faster way to write this all in one statement?

Answer 1

Try it this way

SELECT *
  FROM table1
 ORDER BY FIELD(id, 4,5,6) > 0 DESC, id
  LIMIT 6

Output:

| ID |
|----|
|  4 |
|  5 |
|  6 |
|  1 |
|  2 |
|  3 |

Here is SQLFiddle demo

Answer 2

There is no need of the FIELD function. That will only make things slow.

You just need to properly use the ORDER BY :

SELECT * FROM table
ORDER BY id IN (4,5,6) DESC, id
LIMIT 6

Answer 3

here's how to do it all in one query

SELECT DISTINCT t1.*
FROM table t1
LEFT JOIN table2 ON t1.id = t2.clickID AND t2.searchphrase='$searchphrase'
ORDER BY t2.clickID IS NULL ASC, t1.id ASC

When the LEFT JOIN finds no match, it sets the fields in t2 to NULL in the returned row. This orders by this nullness.