Order against two columns at the same time (intersecting)

Question

I have a table with the CommonName and FirstName fields. Only each field has data, but not both. Is there a way to arrange rows in a crossover way on SQL Server?

Example:

 CommonName FirstName Bern Wade Ashley Boris Ayana 

I want the entries to be arranged as follows:

 CommonName FirstName Ashley Ayana Bern Boris Wade 

Is this possible, and if so, how?

Answer 1

Use the CASE statement to select the value for this row and ORDER BY , which.

Answer 2

ORDER BY CommonName + FirstName , with corresponding ISNULL(<column>, '') if they are null.

Answer 3

 ORDER BY CASE WHEN CommonName is null THEN FirstName ELSE CommonName END 

Answer 4

 order by coalesce(CommonName, FirstName)