Question

Write the code for an ORDER BY clause that sorts a table into numeric sequence by the data in the PartCode column if that column contains whole numbers that are stored with the varchar data type: ___________________ A) ORDER BY CAST (PartCode AS decimal) B) ORDERBY CAST (PartCode) C) ORDER BY CAST (PartCode AS int) D) none of the above

Answer 1

To sort a table by a varchar column containing whole numbers, the correct SQL ORDER BY clause is A) ORDER BY CAST (PartCode AS decimal). This converts the varchar data to a decimal type to ensure proper numeric sorting.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student is asking how to write an ORDER BY clause that sorts a table by the numeric sequence of a column containing whole numbers stored as the varchar data type. The correct answer to this question would be A) ORDER BY CAST (PartCode AS decimal).

The CAST function is used to convert the data from one type to another, in this case from varchar to decimal, so that the SQL engine can correctly sort the numbers numerically rather than lexicographically, which is the default behavior when sorting varchar values. The 'AS decimal' part specifies the new data type you are casting to. This is crucial because whole numbers could potentially have leading zeros or be of varying lengths, and casting them properly ensures they are sorted as numerical values.