SQL Query to find number of users in a Job Area - mysql

Question

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.

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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