I have a table which contains varchars with numbers in them such as "03-011A" or "03.011A" or "03-011" or "03.011" etc... However, standard methods of numerical order seem ineffective and they still return unordered, I've checked for solutions but alas, I have found no cure.
Got any ideas?
You shouldnt have this kind of inconsistencies in your database. Choose a format and stick to it.
However you could use ie NumericOnly() ( http://venerableagents.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/mysql-numeric-functions/ ) in your ORDER BY statement or some other sort of RegEx Operation
Try to set the "Number-Field" with Order like: SELECT * FROM table WHERE field=test ORDER BY number_field ASC
Otherwise you can try to order that over PHP (With arrays).