title: Sorting records from Oracle with multiple decimal points (.)
body: <blockquote>
    <p><strong>UPDATE:</strong></p>
    
    <p><strong>ORACLE VERSION 10G</strong></p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>I have a list of records in <code>Oracle</code> as follows, these are actually sections of various books<br>
  The records are generated in the below format</p>
  
  <p><strong>[main topic].[sub topic].[first level section]  ..... .[last level section]</strong></p>
  
  <pre><code>Sections
  --------
  1
  7.1
  6.2 
  7.1
  7.4
  6.8.3
  6.8.2
  10
  1.1
  7.6
  6.1
  11
  8.3
  8.5
  1.1.2
  6.4
  6.6
  8.4
  1.1.6
  6.8.1
  7.7.1
  7.5
  7.3
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want to order this like as follows</p>
  
  <pre><code> 1
   1.1
   1.1.2
   1.1.6
   6.2    
   6.4    
   6.5    
   6.6    
   6.7    
   6.8.1    
   6.8.2    
   6.8.3    
   7.2    
   7.3    
   7.4    
   7.5    
   7.6    
   7.7.1    
   7.7.2    
   8.3    
   8.4    
   8.5
   10
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But as the field is not a <code>numeric</code> <code>datatype</code> the sorting results in something like this</p>
  
  <pre><code>1
  10
  1.1
  1.1.2
  1.1.6
  ....
  .....
  8.5
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How can I sort them. I am unable to convert them to number due to multiple number of decimal points.</p>
  
  <p>Is there any function in <code>oracle</code> that supports such a sorting technique </p>