MS Access 2003 - ordering the string values for a listbox not alphabetical

Question

Here is a silly question. Lets say I have a query that produces for a list box, and it produces values for three stores

Store A     18
Store B     32
Store C     54

Now if I ORDER BY in the sql statement the only thing it will do is descending or ascending alphabetically but I want a certain order (only because THEY WANT A CERTAIN ORDER) .....so is there a way for me to add something to the SQL to get

Store B
Store C
Store A

i.e. basically row by row what i want. thanks!

Answer 1

Add a numeric field, sequencer, to the table which contains the store names. Use the sequencer values to determine your sort order.

SELECT sequencer, store_name FROM YourTable ORDER BY sequencer;

In the list box, set the column width = 0 for the sequencer column.

Or simply, as @dscarr suggested, don't include sequencer in the SELECT field list, but just include it in the ORDER BY ...

SELECT store_name FROM YourTable ORDER BY sequencer;

Answer 2

You can do 1 of 2 things.

Either use a SWITCH stament, something like

SELECT Table1.Store, 
       Table1.Val, 
       Switch([Store]="StoreB",1,[Store]="StoreC",2,[Store]="StoreA",3) AS Expr1
FROM Table1
ORDER BY Switch([Store]="StoreB",1,[Store]="StoreC",2,[Store]="StoreA",3);

Or use a secondary order table, that stores the values of the store names, and an order by value.