How to dynamically add INNER JOIN in a MySql Query? - mysql

I am working on a personal project and I don't know how to create a dynamic query with MySQL. I would like to get all version of a file stored in a database. For this purpose I replaced file by simplest name "first" in a test database created with this script:
/*
DROP DATABASE IF EXISTS request_test;
CREATE DATABASE IF NOT EXISTS request_test
DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
USE request_test;
*/
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS first_next;
CREATE TABLE first_next(
id INT(3) UNSIGNED ,
first VARCHAR(40) NOT NULL,
ik_next INT(3) NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;
ALTER TABLE first_next ADD PRIMARY KEY (`id`);
ALTER TABLE first_next MODIFY `id` INT(3) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT;
ALTER TABLE first_next ADD CONSTRAINT fn1 FOREIGN KEY (ik_next) REFERENCES first_next(id);
Sample data:
INSERT INTO first_next (id, first, ik_next)
VALUES
(1, 'toto1', NULL),
(2, 'titi1', NULL),
(3, 'riri1', NULL),
(4, 'titi2', 2),
(5, 'fifi1', NULL),
(6, 'toto2', 1),
(7, 'titi3', 4),
(8, 'fifi2', 5),
(9, 'fifi3', 8),
(10, 'toto3', 6),
(11, 'loulou1', NULL),
(12, 'toto4', 10);
As you can see toto1 is replaced by successively 3 other name toto2, toto3 and toto4. With the following query I get the full history of toto1:
SELECT first.id,first.first AS initiale,
second.id,second.first AS suivante_1,
third.id,third.first AS suivante_2,
fourth.id,fourth.first AS suivante_3
FROM first_next AS first
INNER JOIN first_next AS second
ON second.ik_next = first.id
INNER JOIN first_next AS third
ON third.ik_next = second.id
INNER JOIN first_next AS fourth
ON fourth.ik_next = third.id
WHERE fourth.id = 12
ORDER BY first.id ASC;
In this case I added manually 3 "INNER JOIN" and I would like to dynamically adapt query with history of name. Imagine if toto5, toto6 exists. This is where I am stuck and I don't know how to solve my problem.

Related

How to implement IF condition in two relational tables?

I have two relational tables, and I would like to filter data using IF condition. The problem is that using LEFT JOIN I got records that cannot be grouped.
The tables that I have are:
calendar
bookers
The first table consists of lessons that can be booked by more people, and the second table contains data who booked each lesson. The IF condition that I would like to implement is: return '2' if lesson is booked by specific user, return '1' if lesson is booked, but by another user, and return '0' if lesson is not booked.
What I would like to get according to above tables is given in the figure below.
Expected result
But, when I use LEFT JOIN to link those tables, I got record for every user that booked specific lesson.
SELECT calendar.id, calendarId, lessonType, description,
CASE
WHEN bookedBy then IF(bookedBy = 8, '2', '1')
ELSE '0'
END AS bb,
(select count(bookedBy) from bookers where calendar.id = bookers.lessonId) as nOfBookers
FROM calendar
LEFT JOIN bookers ON calendar.id = bookers.lessonId
WHERE `calendarId`= 180
Without the LEFT JOIN (fiddle), counts are shown properly, but I cannot include IF condition, because the table bookers is not defined.
I would appreciate any help. Thank you very much in advance.
Here is the Fiddle.
CREATE TABLE `calendar` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`calendarId` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
`lessonType` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
`description` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;
INSERT INTO `calendar`
(`id`, `calendarId`, `lessonType`, `description`)
VALUES
(1, '180', 'A', ''),
(2, '180', 'A', ''),
(3, '180', 'A', ''),
(4, '180', 'B', ''),
(5, '180', 'B', ''),
(6, '180', 'B', ''),
(7, '180', 'B', ''),
(8, '180', 'B', ''),
(9, '180', 'B', '');
CREATE TABLE `bookers` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`lessonId` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
`bookedBy` int(11) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4;
--
-- Dumping data for table `bookers`
--
INSERT INTO `bookers` (`id`, `lessonId`, `bookedBy`) VALUES
(4, 1, 8),
(5, 2, 8),
(6, 2, 28),
(7, 2, 17),
(8, 3, 11);
--
-- Indexes for dumped tables
--
ALTER TABLE `calendar`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
ADD UNIQUE KEY `id` (`id`);
--
-- Indexes for table `bookers`
--
ALTER TABLE `bookers`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`id`);
--
-- AUTO_INCREMENT for dumped tables
--
--
-- AUTO_INCREMENT for table `bookers`
--
ALTER TABLE `bookers`
MODIFY `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT, AUTO_INCREMENT=9;
COMMIT;
select version();
Try this:
SELECT id, calendarid, lessontype, description,
CASE WHEN FIND_IN_SET(8,vbb)>0 THEN 2
WHEN vbb IS NOT NULL THEN 1
ELSE 0 END AS bb,
nOfBookers
FROM
(SELECT c.id, calendarId, lessonType, GROUP_CONCAT(bookedby) AS vbb, description,
(SELECT COUNT(bookedby) FROM bookers WHERE c.id = bookers.lessonId) AS nOfBookers
FROM calendar c
LEFT JOIN bookers b ON c.id = b.lessonId
WHERE `calendarId`= 180
GROUP BY c.id, calendarId, lessonType, description) A;
In addition to your original LEFT JOIN attempt, I've added GROUP_CONCAT(bookedby) AS vbb which will return a comma separated bookedby value; which is 17,28,8. After that, I make the query as a sub-query and do CASE expression with FIND_IN_SET function on vbb to look for specific bookedby.
Here's an update fiddle: https://dbfiddle.uk/?rdbms=mysql_8.0&fiddle=0933e9fc3cb7445311c34c6705d11637

SQL Query to find number of users in a Job Area

I have three tables:
jobAreas (id, title)
jobSkills (id,title, jobAreaID)
userSkills (id, userID, jobSkillID)
Each jobSkills entry belongs to a JobArea (linked by foreign key jobAreaID). And each userSkills entry has a JobSkill that is related to a jobSkill.
I am trying to create a SQL select query that will list the number of users that belong to each Job Area.
SELECT ja.id, ja.title, COUNT(*) as numUsers FROM user_skill_types uskills INNER JOIN job_areas ja INNER JOIN skill_types st ON ja.id = st.parent_id GROUP BY ja.id
But the numbers I am getting are not correct.
Given the following example (based on the table structure provided in the question).
CREATE TABLE `jobareas` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`title` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
INSERT INTO `jobareas` (`id`, `title`) VALUES
(1, 'area1'),
(2, 'area2'),
(3, 'area3'),
(4, 'area4'),
(5, 'area5'),
(6, 'area6'),
(7, 'area7'),
(8, 'area8');
-- --------------------------------------------------------
CREATE TABLE `jobskills` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`title` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
`jobAreaID` int(11) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
INSERT INTO `jobskills` (`id`, `title`, `jobAreaID`) VALUES
(1, 'skill1', 1),
(2, 'skill2', 3),
(3, 'skill3', 3),
(4, 'skill4', 7),
(5, 'skill5', 4),
(6, 'skill6', 5),
(7, 'skill7', 1),
(8, 'skill8', 7),
(9, 'skill9', 6),
(10, 'skill10', 3),
(11, 'skill11', 4),
(12, 'skill12', 2),
(13, 'skill13', 6),
(14, 'skill14', 7),
(15, 'skill15', 2);
-- --------------------------------------------------------
CREATE TABLE `userskills` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`userID` int(11) NOT NULL,
`jobSkillID` int(11) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
INSERT INTO `userskills` (`id`, `userID`, `jobSkillID`) VALUES
(1, 5, 10),
(2, 2, 11),
(3, 4, 14),
(4, 4, 6),
(5, 2, 8),
(6, 6, 9),
(7, 3, 9),
(8, 1, 12),
(9, 1, 3),
(10, 5, 10);
ALTER TABLE `jobareas`
ADD UNIQUE KEY `id` (`id`);
ALTER TABLE `jobskills`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
ADD KEY `jobAreaID` (`jobAreaID`);
ALTER TABLE `userskills`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
ADD KEY `userID` (`userID`),
ADD KEY `jobSkillID` (`jobSkillID`);
ALTER TABLE `jobskills`
ADD CONSTRAINT `jobskills_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`jobAreaID`) REFERENCES `jobareas` (`id`);
ALTER TABLE `userskills`
ADD CONSTRAINT `userskills_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`jobSkillID`) REFERENCES `jobskills` (`id`);
Your query should use DISTINCT.
SELECT COUNT(DISTINCT(`us`.`userID`)) AS `num`,`ja`.`title` FROM `userskills` `us`
INNER JOIN `jobskills` `js` ON `js`.`id` = `us`.`jobSkillID`
INNER JOIN `jobareas` `ja` ON `ja`.`id` = `js`.`jobAreaID`
GROUP BY `ja`.`id`;
The results can be checked in this SQLFiddle
Your SQL Query shared does not seem to match the schema shared. Also you have not specified how to join the job_areas table
Use
select
ja.id, ja.title , count(us.id) as numUsers
from jobAreas ja
INNER JOIN jobSkills js on ja.id = js.jobAreaID
INNER JOIN userSkills us on js.id = us.jobSkillID
GROUP BY ja.id, ja.title
You are probably getting duplicates in your result because of users having multiple skills or jobs having multiple areas, or both. Rather than COUNT(*), use COUNT(DISTINCT userID) to work around that:
SELECT ja.id, ja.title, COUNT(DISTINCT us.userID) as numUsers
FROM jobAreas ja
JOIN jobSkills js ON js.jobAreaID = ja.id
JOIN userSkills us ON us.jobSkillsID = js.id
GROUP BY ja.id, ja.title
Note I've written the query based on the schema in your question. Based on the query you have written, it should probably look something like (it's not clear what the user_skill_types userID column is called, or how to JOIN user_skill_types to job_skills):
SELECT ja.id, ja.title, COUNT(DISTINCT uskills.userID) as numUsers
FROM job_areas ja
JOIN skill_types st ON ja.id = st.parent_id
JOIN user_skill_types uskills ON uskills.jobSkillID = st.id
GROUP BY ja.id, ja.title

MySQL multi delete row in 2 tables that MIGHT reference each other

I have got 2 MySQL tables that have (InnoDB) foreign keys going into each other. For example,
-- Adminer 4.2.3 MySQL dump
SET NAMES utf8;
SET time_zone = '+00:00';
SET foreign_key_checks = 0;
SET sql_mode = 'NO_AUTO_VALUE_ON_ZERO';
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `a`;
CREATE TABLE `a` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`null_or_b_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `null_or_b_id` (`null_or_b_id`),
CONSTRAINT `a_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`null_or_b_id`) REFERENCES `b` (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
INSERT INTO `a` (`id`, `null_or_b_id`) VALUES
(1, NULL),
(2, 2),
(4, 3),
(3, 4),
(5, 5),
(6, 6),
(7, 7),
(8, 8);
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `b`;
CREATE TABLE `b` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`null_or_a_id` int(11) DEFAULT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `null_or_a_id` (`null_or_a_id`),
CONSTRAINT `b_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`null_or_a_id`) REFERENCES `a` (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
INSERT INTO `b` (`id`, `null_or_a_id`) VALUES
(1, NULL),
(8, NULL),
(2, 2),
(4, 3),
(3, 4),
(5, 6),
(6, 7),
(7, 8);
-- 2016-02-03 06:45:07
What I want to do is delete the records with the ids 1, 2, 3 and 5 from a and delete any records that need to deleted in both a and b due to the foreign key constraints. I have tried:
delete from a where a.id in (1,2,3,5);
delete a,b from a left join b on b.null_or_a_id = a.id where a.id in (1,2,3,5);
Both the above give the same error:
Error in query (1451): Cannot delete or update a parent row: a foreign key constraint fails (`test/multi_delete_with_references`.`b`, CONSTRAINT `b_ibfk_1` FOREIGN KEY (`null_or_a_id`) REFERENCES `a` (`id`))
I get the same error even if I remove the foreign key constraint on b defined in a.
Things I can't do:
Disable foreign key checks: because both the tables are also referenced by other tables and I don't want those tables to have orphaned rows, if this delete is going to cause such orphaned rows I need this delete to fail.
Delete from the child table first: because as you can see in the case of rows with id 2 in both tables, they reference each other so one can't be deleted without the other, also in the case of rows with ids 3 and 4 in both tables, they form a self-referencing chain.
I have looked at the answer here and it won't work for me because both the tables reference each other.
Is there a way out of this?
BTW, I also tried to generate complex, nested queries dynamically but it ended up being endless:
delete from a where id in (1,2,3,5);
delete from b where null_or_a_id is not null and null_or_a_id in (select * from (select id from a where id in (1,2,3,5)) x);
delete from a where null_or_b_id is not null and null_or_b_id in (select * from (select id from b where null_or_a_id is not null and null_or_a_id in (select * from (select id from a where id in (1,2,3,5)) x)) x);
delete from b where null_or_a_id is not null and null_or_a_id in (select * from (select id from a where null_or_b_id is not null and null_or_b_id in (select * from (select id from b where null_or_a_id is not null and null_or_a_id in (select * from (select id from a where id in (1,2,3,5)) x)) x)) x)
...
Your problem is quite similar to this one and the same solution applies: first remove the references by setting to NULL the referencing columns in those rows that you intend to delete. Then delete.

Mysql Incrementing variable performance

I has looking for a way to sort items in a mysql table.
Here a simplified version of the table
sqlfiddle => http://sqlfiddle.com/#!2/78521b/3/0
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `test_sort` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`sort` int(11) NOT NULL,
`name` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
KEY `sort` (`sort`)
);
INSERT INTO `test_sort` (`id`,`sort`, `name`) VALUES
(1, 1, 'Joker'),
(2, 3, 'Queen of Spade'),
(3, 6, 'King of Heart'),
(4, 4, 'Ace of Diamond'),
(5, 17, 'Three of Clubs'),
(6, 60, 'Seven of Clubs'),
(7, 2, 'Ten of Spades'),
(8, 5, 'Ace of Heart');
So once the items (cards) has been sorted by the user i want to run the query on the sort column so it remains consistent.
Solution found here : MySQL update a field with an incrementing variable
SET #n=0;
UPDATE `test_sort` SET `sort` = #n := #n + 1 ORDER BY `sort`
QUESTION: how this query would act (performance wise) if it was used on thousands (or millions) of records?
Don't store sort in the table; store it in a separate table. Furthermore, don't UPDATE that table, recreate it. Further-furthermore, use the following to avoid any downtime:
CREATE TABLE New SELECT ... -- generate new sort order
RENAME TABLE Sort TO Old, New To Sort;
DROP TABLE Old;

How to refactor, (shorten) this query

I have a database with tables: applicant (or candidate for a job), application (candidate applied for a certain job), test, selected_test(any application has a defined set of tests) and test_result.
When I need to show which applicant scored what result for any application and test I would use this query:
SELECT applicant.first_name, applicant.last_name, application.job, test.name, test_result.score
FROM applicant
INNER JOIN application ON application.applicant_id=applicant.id
INNER JOIN selected_test ON application.id=selected_test.application_id
INNER JOIN test ON selected_test.test_id=test.id
INNER JOIN test_result ON selected_test.test_id=test_result.test_id AND applicant.id=test_result.applicant_id
What I need to accomplish is sorting by certain test type (test.name) along with test.score
This is what I mean:
SELECT a.first_name, a.last_name, app.job, iq.score AS iqScore, math.score AS mathScore, personality.score AS personalityScore, logic.score AS logicScore
FROM applicant a
INNER JOIN application app ON a.id=app.applicant_id
LEFT JOIN
(SELECT app.id AS appId, tr.score
FROM applicant a
INNER JOIN application app ON app.applicant_id=a.id
INNER JOIN selected_test st ON app.id=st.application_id
INNER JOIN test t ON st.test_id=t.id AND t.name='iq'
INNER JOIN test_result tr ON st.test_id=tr.test_id AND a.id=tr.applicant_id) AS iq ON app.id=iq.appId
LEFT JOIN
(SELECT app.id AS appId, tr.score
FROM applicant a
INNER JOIN application app ON app.applicant_id=a.id
INNER JOIN selected_test st ON app.id=st.application_id
INNER JOIN test t ON st.test_id=t.id AND t.name='math'
INNER JOIN test_result tr ON st.test_id=tr.test_id AND a.id=tr.applicant_id) AS math ON app.id=math.appId
LEFT JOIN
(SELECT app.id AS appId, tr.score
FROM applicant a
INNER JOIN application app ON app.applicant_id=a.id
INNER JOIN selected_test st ON app.id=st.application_id
INNER JOIN test t ON st.test_id=t.id AND t.name='personality'
INNER JOIN test_result tr ON st.test_id=tr.test_id AND a.id=tr.applicant_id) AS personality ON app.id=personality.appId
LEFT JOIN
(SELECT app.id AS appId, tr.score
FROM applicant a
INNER JOIN application app ON app.applicant_id=a.id
INNER JOIN selected_test st ON app.id=st.application_id
INNER JOIN test t ON st.test_id=t.id AND t.name='logic'
INNER JOIN test_result tr ON st.test_id=tr.test_id AND a.id=tr.applicant_id) AS logic ON app.id=logic.appId
ORDER BY mathScore DESC, iqScore DESC, logicScore DESC
The query returns a set of applications, showing applicant data, job, test names and scores.
For instance, if I want candidate applications with higher "math" score, followed by highest scores in "IQ" and then in "logic" to be on top, 'ORDER BY' clause looks like the above.
The query works correct but the problem is that in real situation it deals with large data sets and I need a way to shorten/refactor this query.
Example database it works on is here:
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `applicant` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`first_name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
`last_name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=8 ;
--
-- Dumping data for table `applicant`
--
INSERT INTO `applicant` (`id`, `first_name`, `last_name`) VALUES
(2, 'Jack', 'Redburn'),
(4, 'Barry', 'Leon'),
(6, 'Elisabeth', 'Logan'),
(7, 'Jane', 'Doe');
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `application`
--
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `application` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`applicant_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`job` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=10 ;
--
-- Dumping data for table `application`
--
INSERT INTO `application` (`id`, `applicant_id`, `job`) VALUES
(2, 2, 'Salesman'),
(4, 4, 'Policeman'),
(6, 6, 'Journalist'),
(8, 6, 'Hostess'),
(9, 7, 'Journalist');
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `selected_test`
--
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `selected_test` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`application_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`test_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=24 ;
--
-- Dumping data for table `selected_test`
--
INSERT INTO `selected_test` (`id`, `application_id`, `test_id`) VALUES
(1, 1, 1),
(2, 1, 2),
(3, 1, 3),
(5, 2, 1),
(6, 2, 2),
(7, 2, 3),
(8, 2, 4),
(9, 3, 4),
(10, 3, 2),
(11, 4, 1),
(12, 4, 2),
(13, 4, 3),
(14, 4, 4),
(15, 5, 2),
(16, 5, 3),
(17, 6, 1),
(18, 6, 4),
(19, 7, 3),
(20, 7, 2),
(21, 7, 1),
(22, 8, 2),
(23, 8, 3);
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `test`
--
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `test` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=5 ;
--
-- Dumping data for table `test`
--
INSERT INTO `test` (`id`, `name`) VALUES
(1, 'math'),
(2, 'logic'),
(3, 'iq'),
(4, 'personality');
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `test_result`
--
CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `test_result` (
`id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
`applicant_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`test_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
`score` int(11) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 AUTO_INCREMENT=24 ;
--
-- Dumping data for table `test_result`
--
INSERT INTO `test_result` (`id`, `applicant_id`, `test_id`, `score`) VALUES
(2, 2, 1, 6),
(3, 4, 1, 7),
(6, 6, 1, 3),
(7, 7, 1, 8),
(9, 2, 2, 15),
(11, 4, 2, 12),
(13, 6, 2, 11),
(14, 7, 2, 9),
(15, 7, 3, 105),
(16, 6, 3, 112),
(18, 4, 3, 108),
(20, 2, 3, 117),
(22, 4, 4, 70);
And here is what results look like:
First query is just to show you how data is related:
The large query, shows score data horizontally so it is possible to sort by test name and score:
caveat I don't know mysql
Googling mysql pivot gives this result http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MySQL/Pivot_table
So if we apply the same logic using the test.id as the seed number (which is exam in the example from the google search) we get this:
SQLFIDDLE
select first_name, last_name, job,
sum(score*(1-abs(sign(testid-1)))) as math,
sum(score*(1-abs(sign(testid-2)))) as logic,
sum(score*(1-abs(sign(testid-3)))) as iq,
sum(score*(1-abs(sign(testid-4)))) as personality
from
(
SELECT applicant.first_name, applicant.last_name, application.job, test.name, test_result.score, test.id as testid
FROM applicant
INNER JOIN application ON application.applicant_id=applicant.id
INNER JOIN selected_test ON application.id=selected_test.application_id
INNER JOIN test ON selected_test.test_id=test.id
INNER JOIN test_result ON selected_test.test_id=test_result.test_id AND applicant.id=test_result.applicant_id
) t
group by first_name, last_name, job
Now you've got your short query yu can apply sorting as required - you can use case statement in you order by to dynamically change the order as required...
I noticed that you have only defined primary keys. You should see a noticeable performance improvement when you index other fields. Index at least the following: application.applicant_id, selected_test.application_id, selected_test.test_id, test_result.applicant_id, test_result.test_id, test_result.score.
You might be surprised how much this speeds things up for you. In fact, mysql tells us this is the best way to improve performance: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/optimization-indexes.html.