When ordering lists of names or titles it’s sometimes desirable to exclude articles or other words from the order clause (eg. you want “The Burning Hell” to show up before “Great Lake Swimmers” in a list ordered by name). Early on in my career I must have assumed it was not possible and never bothered to look into again because I don’t recall ever ordering a list like this.
Anyways. Here’s how you do it:
SELECT name FROM artists ORDER BY TRIM( LEADING "a " FROM TRIM( LEADING "an " FROM TRIM( LEADING "the " FROM LOWER( name ) ) ) )