How to assign the correct ROW_NUMBER to the result

Question

I have this SQL:

SELECT 
    --CASE WHEN EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId] IS NULL THEN 1000+(ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId] )) ELSE ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId] ) END AS C_NO,
    ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId]) AS C_NO,
    EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId],
    C.PreName AS C_TITLE,
    C.FirstName AS C_NAME,
    C.LastName AS C_SURNAME,
    C.Email AS C_EMAIL,
    CASE WHEN EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId] = 1 THEN 'MAIN CONTACT' ELSE '' END AS C_COMMENTS,
    CASE WHEN EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId] = 1 THEN 'v' ELSE ' ' END AS C_INV,
    CASE WHEN EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId] = 1 THEN 'v' ELSE ' ' END AS C_UPDATES,
    CASE WHEN EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId] = 1 THEN 'v' ELSE ' ' END AS C_DOWN
FROM
    [CMSTIME].[dbo].[Contacts] C 
LEFT OUTER JOIN 
    [CMSTIME].[dbo].[Entities] E ON E.EntityId = C.EntityId 
FULL OUTER JOIN 
    [CMSTIME].[dbo].[EntityAttentions] EA ON EA.[PeopleId]= C.[ContactId]
WHERE 
    C.ContactId  IN (SELECT Entity2People.EmployeeId 
                     FROM Entity2People 
                     WHERE Entity2People.EntityId =  307)
ORDER BY 
    C_NO

I get this result:

How can I change my SQL so that I get rows with nulls EntityAttentionTypeId at the bottom and the C_NO still to read 1,2,3,4...etc

I've tried

CASE WHEN EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId] IS NULL THEN 1000+(ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId] )) ELSE ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId] ) END AS C_NO,

but i get something like:

Thank you all in advance

Answer 1

I think you want ORDER BY -EntityAttentionTypeId DESC within the ROW_NUMBER() function

Since ASC will put NULL first, then order by non null values, if you order by DESC it will put NULL last. This of course would reverse the required order of Non Null values, so if you use the - operator you get back to the correct order, while still keeping NULL at the end.

eg

SELECT  ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY -EntityAttentionTypeId DESC)  AS C_NO,
        EntityAttentionTypeId
FROM    (VALUES (NULL), (1), (2), (3)) t (EntityAttentionTypeId)
ORDER BY C_NO;

Gives:

C_NO    EntityAttentionTypeId
-----------------------------
1       1
2       2
3       3
4       NULL

Answer 2

Hmmm, I think this resulting query should redefine C_NO using both ROW_NUMBER() and a CASE :

SELECT (ROW_NUMBER() OVER (ORDER BY EA.[EntityAttentionTypeId]) +
        (CASE WHEN EA.EntityAttentionTypeId] IS NULL THEN 1000 ELSE 0 END)
       ) AS C_NO,
. . .
ORDER BY C_NO;