dear list members i have created a report in koha3 with the following sql: SELECT items.barcode,items.dateaccessioned,items.price,items.itemcallnumber,items.holdingbranch,biblioitems.biblioitemnumber,biblioitems.isbn,biblioitems.publicationyear,biblioitems.pages,biblioitems.size,biblioitems.place,biblio.title,biblio.author,biblio.copyrightdate FROM items LEFT JOIN biblioitems on (items.biblioitemnumber=biblioitems.biblioitemnumber) LEFT JOIN biblio on (biblioitems.biblionumber=biblio.biblionumber) ORDER BY (items.barcode) asc now items.barcode field has values in alpha numeric (some are starting from 1, 2, 3, 4, etc and some barcodes are with prefix like m23, m45, m46, m67, etc ) but in my report i got the output in strange sorting order like: items.barcode ---------------------- 1565678 89765 u123456711 u12345679 .... .... but i want to sort numbers first, then barcodes with prefix. Can someone guide me how to do so? a friend of mine suggested me to use CAST in sql but i don't know what is this and how to use it -- Regards Abdul Vali Librarian - ASE School