Something like this:

SELECT ;
  field_name,;
  CHRTRAN(field_name,"0123456789",;
               CHR(123)+CHR(124)+CHR(125)+;
               CHR(126)+CHR(127)+CHR(128)+;
               CHR(129)+CHR(130)+chr(131)+chr(132)) ;
  FROM yy ORDER BY 2

>I want to sort character data with letters coming before numbers:
>
>AA
>A1
>A2
>BR
>BZ
>B2
>B8
>1A
>11
>12
>2A
>2B
>
>How would I go about this?