php - Mysql: move specific records on top of the resultant array beside ORDER BY

Question

In mysql db table I have all countries like:

and I fetched all countries as:

SELECT * FROM countries_table ORDER BY country_name

but I want to show some specific countries at top of the list:

and then other will come in ORDER BY country_name

Could it be solved by MYSQL and/or PHP & how?

Answer 1

There is a simple and not well-known MySQL trick:

SELECT * FROM countries_table
ORDER BY name = 'Australia' desc,
         name = 'UAE' desc,
         name = 'Pakistan' desc,
         name = 'UK' desc,
         name = 'USA' desc,
         name asc;