Google Spreadsheet sorting with multiple columns

Question:

( by Brett Walters )

Hi, 

I'm using google spreadsheet to scrape an HTML table and manipulate the data for re-publishing on the web.  Because our initial web form (which produces the HTML table) can't capture the info we need, I have staff manually adding data in a column,  All good up to here.  The new data is maiden name, and with the final output, I'd like it to sort maiden if it exists and then last name.  However, 'ORDER BY' treats the blank cell as a higher sorting cell.

This is what I've tried:

=QUERY(AddBirthName!$A$2:$D$2467;"select A,B,C where D = 1973 ORDER BY (B if B != ''),A";0)

this doesn't work...

Here is a example of the spreadsheet. Looking at the worksheet '1973' I'd like to see the order go 'Harding, Honday, Kimpinger, Korniger' ....

thanks!

Brett

Solution:

Here is the screenshot of the Sheet1:

Now after inserting the following formula:
=QUERY(Sheet1!$A$2:$D$2467;"select A,B,C where D = 1973 ORDER BY B,A";0)

Here is the screenshot of Sheet Sorting but not in the desired order. 

Now here is the formula to get the required output:

=QUERY(ArrayFormula(IF({{1},{1},{1},{1},{0}};Sheet1!$A$2:$D$2467;if(Sheet1!B2:B="";Sheet1!A2:A;Sheet1!B2:B)));"select Col1,Col2,Col3 where Col4 = 1973 ORDER BY Col5";0)

And here is the screenshot of Sheet sorted in the desired order:

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