Listing curriculum vitae data

Question

I need this kind of ORDER BY to list my curriculum vitae data: when ep.data_termino is null it means that the job is your current job (you can have multiple current jobs), then I must list them first. Then, I need to list all the others ordered by the ep.data_termino ASC.

The IF was my only choice. I know that it is never a good option to use IFs in queries (at least that's how I learned it), so I am asking here if there is any better solution.

    SELECT ep.nome_empresa, ep.data_inicio, ep.descricao, ct.nome as contratacao_tipo_nome, p.nome as profissao_nome, 

IF(ep.data_termino IS NULL,NOW(),ep.data_termino) as data_term

    FROM experiencia_profissional as ep
    JOIN contratacao_tipo as ct ON ct.codigo = ep.codigo_contratacao_tipo
    JOIN profissao as p ON p.codigo = ep.codigo_profissao
    JOIN experiencia_profissional_membro as epm ON epm.codigo_experiencia_profissional = ep.codigo
    JOIN membro as m ON m.codigo = epm.codigo_membro
    JOIN usuario as u ON u.codigo_membro = m.codigo

    WHERE u.codigo = 124
    ORDER by data_term DESC, ep.data_inicio ASC

Answer 1

Try:

ORDER BY ep.data_termino IS NOT NULL, ep.data_termino DESC, ep.data_inicio ASC

BTW,

IFNULL(ep.data_termino,NOW()) 

is a cleaner way to express:

IF(ep.data_termino IS NULL,NOW(),ep.data_termino)