MYSQL - count how many times a person comes second in a competition - mysql

Question

I have the following table called 'players' which contains scores from 3 games played by Tim, Bob and Jon.
playid | name | score
1 | Tim | 10
1 | Bob | 5
2 | Tim | 5
2 | Bob | 10
3 | Tim | 5
3 | Bob | 10
3 | Jon | 4
I want to be able to count the number of times that Tim, Bob and Jon have come second i.e. Tim = 2, Bob = 1, Jon = 0.
I have the following query:
SELECT name FROM players WHERE playid = 1 ORDER BY score Desc LIMIT 1, 1
Which returns the name of the person in second place in the first game i.e. Bob, but I can't figure out how to extend this to cover all games and players. Eventually I also want to be able to count the number of times they come 3rd, 4th etc.
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Try with following one:
SELECT count(playid), name, score
FROM `players`
WHERE score = (SELECT MAX(score) FROM players WHERE score < (SELECT MAX(score) FROM players))
GROUP BY score, name;

Answer 2

With multiple joins and groupings:
select pl.name, ifnull(counter, 0) counter from (
select distinct name from players) pl
left join (
select players.name, count(*) counter from players
inner join (
select p.playid, max(p.score) as secondscore from (
select players.* from players
left join (
select playid, max(score) as maxscore
from players
group by playid) p
on p.playid = players.playid and p.maxscore = players.score
where p.maxscore is null) p
group by p.playid
) p
on p.playid = players.playid and p.secondscore = players.score
group by players.name) p
on p.name = pl.name
See the demo

Answer 3

You can use this query below to find the secondly-ranked people :
SELECT q2.playid, q2.name
FROM
(
SELECT q1.* , if(switch1,#r:=#r+1,#r:=0) as switch2
FROM
(
SELECT playid, score, name,
if(playid=#p,#p:=0,#p:=playid+1) as switch1
FROM players
JOIN ( SELECT #p:=0, #r:=-1 ) p2
ORDER BY playid, score desc
) q1
) q2
WHERE q2.switch2 = 1
ORDER BY q2.playid
playid name
------ ----
1 Bob
2 Tim
3 Tim
4 George
Rextester Demo

Answer 4

As per the comment by Raymond Nijland, in MySQL 8.0+ you can use window functions to achieve this:
SELECT name, COUNT(*) AS second_place_count
FROM (
SELECT
name,
playid,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY playid ORDER BY score DESC) AS rn
FROM players
) AS ranks
WHERE ranks.rn = 2
GROUP BY name
...or if you want to extend this to all places:
SELECT
name,
rn AS place,
COUNT(*) AS place_count
FROM (
SELECT
name,
playid,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY playid ORDER BY score DESC) AS rn
FROM players
) AS ranks
GROUP BY
name,
rn