Re: SQL command speed

Hey crew:
I've got a relatively simple SQL problem. In a db backed web site
we're building, I'd like to fill a dropdown box with the contents of a
validation table, in this case research institutions. I want to sort them
alphabetically, but using "library rules": i.e. skip inital articles,
since we've a few 'The University of Foo" and "The Johns Hopkins
University", for example.

I thought I had it with this SQL:

SELECT InstName from Institutions ORDER BY ltrim (InstName, 'The');

Looked good, until I found 'Texas A&M University' sorting below York.

Seems ltrim() removes inital charaters from the set of charaters, not
inital strings, so I was sorting on 'xas A&M University'

Anyone have some magic solution for this?

Ross
-- 
Ross J. Reedstrom, Ph.D., <reedstrm@rice.edu> 
NSBRI Research Scientist/Programmer
Computer and Information Technology Institute
Rice University, 6100 S. Main St.,  Houston, TX 77005