Conditional ORDER BY based on NULL values in the column

Question

I have a table like this. table(student_name nvarchar(20) not NULL, grades int). When I write

select * from table
order by grades asc

It shows this

student_name | grades
---------------------
   Ann       |  NULL
   Bob       |  NULL
   Bob       |   10
   Jane      |   25
   Nelly     |   30

when select * from table order by grades desc

   student_name | grades
    ---------------------
      Nelly     |   30
      Jane      |   25
      Bob       |   10
      Ann       |  NULL
      Bob       |  NULL

But I need to order by like this. NULLs in the end but those who have grades order by ascending order, like

   student_name | grades
    ---------------------
      Bob       |   10
      Jane      |   25
      Nelly     |   30
      Ann       |  NULL
      Bob       |  NULL

How it is possible to do a conditional order by like this? How to specify NULL values to be at the end?

Answer 1

You could add a case when check to the order by to give the NULL's a lower priority and then filter on grades

SELECT * 
FROM table 
ORDER BY CASE WHEN grades IS NULL 
THEN 2 ELSE 1 END ASC, grades ASC;

Since you are using integers you can also do this, which should be more performant

SELECT * 
FROM table
ORDER BY -grades DESC;

Source

DB<>Fiddle