Select entries where one column is “val”, then “aaa”, then “ccc”

Question

How to order entries by one column (let's say named column13 ). First should be entries where column13 is "val", then "aaa", then "ccc". I can't use GROUP BY column13 ASC or similar. Is it possible to do it without writing 3 queries?

Answer 1

Use the FIELD() construct available in MySQL:

SELECT       stuff
    FROM     table
    WHERE    condition
    ORDER BY FIELD(column13, 'val', 'aaa', 'ccc')