Your answer is too specific. If its dealing with only 50 states of US, Its OK to assign 1-50 called sort order. Here I am NOT allowed to alter the structure of the table as there are many other programs that depends on no of columns and other structure of the table. I am NOT allowed to add any temperory table. We wont mind the overhead caused by the sort algorith implemented. What I am looking for is a logic like Limbic~Region suggested.