--There is no obvious sort in fig 2l; we have no specific req saying to order using a particular approach...so brute force order it. Obviously this solution wouldn't scale..then again any solution that makes an assumption that there is a scalable way to order it would only be correct by pure luck. Note - pseudocode, might have syntax errors but the basic methodology works select * from fig1 a into #temp01 --dump data into a temp table alter table #temp01 add orderr integer --add a new column update #temp01 set orderr = 1 where region = 'Durban' and Contact = 'John' --populate order info update #temp01 set orderr = 2 where region = 'Durban' and Contact = 'Mary' --populate order info --TODO update orderr for 4 remaining rows select region, contact from #temp01 order by orderr