Hi!

I have a strange problem...I get a name(that is a combination of first and last name,seperated by a . ), is it possible that we can sort on either the first or the last name.

Thanks is anticipation....

quiver

It's possible, but you must check if it performs good. Just break the column into pieces. If you have allways the same pattern (fname.lname) you could do something like:

SELECT SUBSTR(your_column, 1, LOCATE('.', your_column)-1) AS fname
,SUBSTR(your_column, LOCATE('.', your_column)+1) AS lname
FROM your_table
ORDER BY 1
or
ORDER BY 2

HTH

Thanks a lot....it worked out perfectly
regards
quiver