SQL - Sum Top N values in each row - mysql

Question

This is my SQL table.
+-------+------+------+------+------+
| name | q1 | q2 | q3 | q4 |
+-------+------+------+------+------+
| Alex | 5 | 4 | 10 | 7 |
| Brown | 7 | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| Chris | 10 | 10 | 9 | 10 |
| Dave | 8 | 4 | 6 | 0 |
+-------+------+------+------+------+
I'd like to sum the top 2 scores from each user in my SQL query above.
For example, the top 2 scores of Alex are 10 and 7, and so the sum is 10 + 7 = 17
I have tried the following query:
SELECT NewStudents.name, SUM(q1+q2+q3+q4) FROM NewStudents
GROUP BY NewStudents.name;
To sum all q1, q2, q3, q4 but this query sums all q1 to q4, not the top 2 scores among q1 to q4.
How can I construct the statement that I want to do in mySQL?

Answer 1

As stated in #Shadow in comment.. Your database need restructure again.. Because that's not database work.. You can restructure and make design like this..
+-------+----+--------+
| name | q | point |
+-------+----+--------+
| Alex | 1 | 5 |
| Alex | 2 | 4 |
| Alex | 3 | 10 |
| Alex | 4 | 7 |
| Brown | 1 | 7 |
| Brown | 2 | 6 |
| Brown | 3 | 4 |
| Brown | 4 | 1 |
| Chris | 1 | 10 |
| Chris | 2 | 10 |
| Chris | 3 | 9 |
| Chris | 4 | 10 |
| Dave | 1 | 8 |
| Dave | 2 | 4 |
| Dave | 3 | 6 |
| Dave | 4 | 0 |
+-------+----+--------+
And for the query you can do like this:
select
name, sum(point)
from(
select
name, q, point,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY name ORDER BY point DESC) as ranked
from newstudents) rankedSD
where
ranked in (1,2)
group by
name
You can check the demo here:
Demo<>Fiddle
Edit : You can use Window Function. You can read Row_Number() Function

Answer 2

A normalised design might look like this:
name q score
Alex 1 5
Alex 2 4
Alex 3 10
Alex 4 7

Answer 3

In older versions of MySQL, you can use variables for this purpose:
select name, sum(q)
from (select nq.*,
(#rn := if(#n = name, #rn + 1,
if(#n := name, 1, 1)
)
) as rn
from (select nq.*
from ((select name, q1 as q from t
) union all
(select name, q2 as q from t
) union all
(select name, q3 as q from t
) union all
(select name, q4 as q from t
)
) nq
order by name, q desc
) nq cross join
(select #n := '', #rn := 0) params
) nq
where rn <= 2;