Help with complicated query (total SQL newb!)

Hi there,

I am only just learning SQL and have three specific questions on correct
syntax for my queries... 

*1.* The 'Data1' and 'Data2' columns have stings which contain both numbers
and letters. In the query below I have removed the letters and re-named the
trimmed versions. I want to cast the remaining numbers to numerics and run
aggregate functions on them (ie AVG, MAX etc). However, whenever I wrap the
TRIM in a function I am getting errors. How do I fix this?

Here is my query

SELECT  data1,  TRIM(TRAILING ' total bookmarks' FROM data1) as Bookmarks_trim,  data2,  TRIM(TRAILING ' folders' FROM
data2)as Folders_trim,  event_code,  user_id
 
FROM events
WHERE event_code =8

And this is what it returns: http://screencast.com/t/DCvey2sAxZ

*2. *I want to add an additional parameter to the query above to show only
DISTINCT instances of the user_id. The separate query I have for that is
below. How do I combine the two?

SELECT DISTINCT
*
FROM (SELECT DISTINCT user_id, event_code, data1, data2        FROM events) AS temp
WHERE event_code = 8 

This returns: http://screencast.com/t/IXhpix0vLNSp

*3. *Lastly, I want to be able to sort by DESC on both the trimmed data1
column and data2 (to see the users with the highest number of folders and
bookmarks) I know you do this with ORDER BY but I am not sure where it would
go in such a large query.

ANY help would be hugely appreciated. 



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