-- sort comma separated substrings with unoptimized bubble sort
DROP FUNCTION IF EXISTS sortString;
DELIMITER |
CREATE FUNCTION sortString(inString TEXT) RETURNS TEXT
BEGIN
  DECLARE delim CHAR(1) DEFAULT ','; -- delimiter 
  DECLARE strings INT DEFAULT 0;     -- number of substrings
  DECLARE forward INT DEFAULT 1;     -- index for traverse forward thru substrings
  DECLARE backward INT;   -- index for traverse backward thru substrings, position in calc. substrings
  DECLARE remain TEXT;               -- work area for calc. no of substrings
-- swap areas TEXT for string compare, INT for numeric compare
  DECLARE swap1 TEXT;                 -- left substring to swap
  DECLARE swap2 TEXT;                 -- right substring to swap
  SET remain = inString;
  SET backward = LOCATE(delim, remain);
  WHILE backward != 0 DO
    SET strings = strings + 1;
    SET backward = LOCATE(delim, remain);
    SET remain = SUBSTRING(remain, backward+1);
  END WHILE;
  IF strings < 2 THEN RETURN inString; END IF;
  REPEAT
    SET backward = strings;
    REPEAT
      SET swap1 = SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(inString,delim,backward-1),delim,-1);
      SET swap2 = SUBSTRING_INDEX(SUBSTRING_INDEX(inString,delim,backward),delim,-1);
      IF  swap1 > swap2 THEN
        SET inString = TRIM(BOTH delim FROM CONCAT_WS(delim
        ,SUBSTRING_INDEX(inString,delim,backward-2)
        ,swap2,swap1
        ,SUBSTRING_INDEX(inString,delim,(backward-strings))));
      END IF;
      SET backward = backward - 1;
    UNTIL backward < 2 END REPEAT;
    SET forward = forward +1;
  UNTIL forward + 1 > strings
  END REPEAT;
RETURN inString;
END |
DELIMITER ;
 
-- example call:
SET @Xstr  = "The,quick,brown,fox,jumped,over,the,lazy,dog";
SET @Ystr  = "9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1";  
SET @Zstr  = "7,8,9,6,5,2,1,4,3";  
SET @str  = "3,2,3,4,2,3";
 
SELECT sortString(@str) AS s1,sortString(@Xstr) AS s2,sortString(@Ystr) AS s3,sortString(@Zstr) AS s4;