RE: SQL to sort numbers stored as strings?

By digits and spaces I'll assume that you mean that and therefore it has no decimals, commas, etc.
By padded I'll assume you mean padded on the left and the field is right justified. But it may not matter.
Then perhaps your only problem is that you want one result for ' 0120' and ' 120' and not a separate result for each.

create table qtemp.jhhl
(mychar char(10));
insert into qtemp.jhhl (mychar) values(' 0120');
insert into qtemp.jhhl (mychar) values(' 120');
insert into qtemp.jhhl (mychar) values(' 73');
select distinct(cast(trim(mychar) as integer))
from qtemp.jhhl
order by 1;

returns 73, 120.


Rob Berendt