SQL intermediate table having column = max(column) - mysql

Question

I have 2 tables: user and review, a one-to-many relationship.
When I execute the following query:
SELECT
user_id,
count(*) totalReviews,
USER . NAME
FROM
review,
USER
WHERE
USER .id = review.user_id
GROUP BY
user_id
I get:
1 2 marius
2 2 daniela
3 1 alin
What I want to do now is to display first 2 users because they have given the most reviews(2).
I tried adding having, if I hardcode having totalReviews=2 it works, but if I write having total = max(total) I get 0 results, while if I'm trying with,
SELECT
*
FROM
(
SELECT
user_id,
count(*) total,
USER . NAME
FROM
review,
USER
WHERE
USER .id = review.user_id
GROUP BY
user_id
) A
WHERE
total = (SELECT max(total) FROM A) `
I get an error (table A doesn't exist)

Answer 1

You would do this with ORDER BY and LIMIT:
SELECT u.id, count(*) as totalReviews, u.name
FROM review r JOIN
user u
ON u.id = r.user_id
GROUP BY u.id, u.name
ORDER BY totalReviews DESC
LIMIT 2;
Notes:
Never use commas in the FROM clause. Always use proper, explicit JOIN syntax.
Table aliases make the query easier to write and read.
EDIT:
If occurs to me that you want all users with the maximum number of reviews, not exactly 2. Here is one method:
SELECT u.id, COUNT(*) as totalReviews, u.name
FROM review r JOIN
user u
ON u.id = r.user_id
GROUP BY u.id, u.name
HAVING totalReviews = (SELECT COUNT(*)
FROM review r2
GROUP BY r2.user_id
ORDER BY COUNT(*) DESC
LIMIT 1
);
Note that the subquery in the HAVING clause is simpler than the outer query. There is no need to bring in the user name.