Order by month giving reverse order in Mysql - mysql

Question

I'm trying to order a mysql query according to the month name but it is ordering in reverse order .I have tried both the ASC and DESC order but not working!This is what i'm getting :
order_amount month_number
370.245 Dec
0.01 Aug
0.02 July
0.01 May
2 Apr
3 Mar
4 Feb
5 Jan
This is the query:
select sum(amnt) as order_amount,month_number from orders where paid =1 GROUP BY month_number ORDER BY MONTH(month_number) ASC
This is a sample table 'order' on which i'm running query
order_amount month_number paid
370.245 Jan 1
0.01 Aug 1
0.02 July 1
0.01 Apr 1
2 May 0
3 Mar 1
4 Feb 0
5 Nov 0

Answer 1

month_number() is a lousy name for a string name for the month. That said, your attempts will not work, because month() takes a date, not a string representation. The best way is probably just to use case:
order by (case when month_number = 'Jan' then 1
when month_number = 'Feb' then 2
. . .
when month_number = 'Dec' then 12
end)
I would strongly suggest you include a date or actual month number in the table. And, rename month_number to something like month_name.

Answer 2

According to your sample, you've got 'Dec', 'Aug' and so on in your month_number field.
How is month(month_number) supposed to work if you don't pass a valid date type? if you pass some random text you'll just get NULL and can't order by NULL
http://sqlfiddle.com/#!2/3a774d/3/0
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/date-and-time-functions.html#function_month

Answer 3

SELECT * FROM my_table;
+-------+
| month |
+-------+
| Apr |
| Aug |
| Dec |
| Feb |
| Jan |
| Jul |
| Jun |
| Mar |
| May |
| Nov |
| Oct |
| Sep |
+-------+
SELECT * FROM my_table ORDER BY STR_TO_DATE(CONCAT('2014-',month,'-01'),'%Y-%b-%d');
+-------+
| month |
+-------+
| Jan |
| Feb |
| Mar |
| Apr |
| May |
| Jun |
| Jul |
| Aug |
| Sep |
| Oct |
| Nov |
| Dec |
+-------+
... or something like that