how to get the max data using natural sort?

Question

10.12.1 
10.12.10 
10.12.11 
10.12.12 
10.12.13 
10.12.14 
10.12.15 
10.12.16 
10.12.17 
10.12.18 
10.12.19 
10.12.2 
10.12.3 
10.12.4 
10.12.5 
10.12.6 
10.12.7 
10.12.8 
10.12.9 

This is a varchar column. But '10.12.19' is the max data i need. How can i get it?

Answer 1

SQL code

 ORDER BY CAST(SUBSTRING_INDEX(col,'.',-1) AS SIGNED) DESC;

Answer 2

MySQL doesn't have a natural sort yet. It's been an open feature request since 2003: http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=1588

I'd do it outside of SQL, or change the values (or add a new column) so that the numbers are fixed width.