MYSQL order by 根据不同条件升序或降序

现在有一个表，字段age和type，type = 1的时候需要age降序排列，type = 2的时候age升序排列。一开始觉得很简单啊，于是就写：

SELECT * FROM table_a ORDER BY CASE WHEN type = 1 THEN 'age DESC' WHEN type = 2 THEN 'age ASC' END

后来发现，根本不行！于是又换方法

SELECT * FROM table_a ORDER BY IF(type = 1,'age DESC','age ASC')

然鹅又失败了。于是在朋友提点下，最终解决办法：

方法一：使用union all

SELECT * FROM table_a WHERE type = 1 ORDER BY age DESC
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM table_a WHERE type = 2 ORDER BY age ASC

方法二：当type = 2的时候把age字段变成负数，然后全部降序排序

SELECT type
,(CASE WHEN type = 1 THEN age * 1 WHEN type = 2 THEN age * -1 END) field
FROM table_a
ORDER BY field DESC