title: ORDER BY with a UNION of disparate datasets (T-SQL)
body: <p>I have a query that <code>UNION</code>'s two somewhat similar datasets, but they both have some columns that are not present in the other (i.e., the columns have NULL values in the resulting <code>UNION</code>.)</p>
  
  <p>The problem is, I need to <code>ORDER</code> the resulting data using those columns that only exist in one or the other set, to get the data in a friendly format for the software-side.</p>
  
  <p>For example: <strong>Table1</strong> has fields <code>ID, Cat, Price</code>. <strong>Table2</strong> has fields <code>ID, Name, Abbrv</code>. The <code>ID</code> field is common between the two tables.</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>My query looks like something like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT t1.ID, t1.Cat, t1.Price, NULL as Name, NULL as Abbrv FROM t1 
  UNION 
  SELECT t2.ID, NULL as Cat, NULL as Price, t2.Name, t2.Abbrv FROM t2 
  ORDER BY Price DESC, Abbrv ASC 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The <code>ORDER BY</code> is where I'm stuck. The data looks like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>100   Balls     1.53                       
  200   Bubbles   1.24                       
  100                     RedBall    101RB   
  100                     BlueBall   102BB   
  200                     RedWand    201RW   
  200                     BlueWand   202BW   
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>...but I want it to look like this:  </p>
  
  <pre><code>100   Balls     1.53                       
  100                     RedBall    101RB   
  100                     BlueBall   102BB   
  200   Bubbles   1.24                       
  200                     RedWand    201RW   
  200                     BlueWand   202BW   
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm hoping this can be done in T-SQL.</p>