SQL query with a major NOT IN not working - mysql

Question

Does anyone know what's wrong with this query?
This works perfectly on its own:
SELECT * FROM
(SELECT * FROM data WHERE site = '".$id."'
AND disabled = '0'
AND carvotes NOT LIKE '0'
AND (time > ( now( ) - INTERVAL 14 DAY ))
GROUP BY car ORDER BY carvotes DESC LIMIT 0 , 10)
X order by time DESC
So does this:
SELECT * FROM data WHERE site = '".$id."' AND disabled = '0' GROUP BY car DESC ORDER BY time desc LIMIT 0 , 30
But combining them like this:
SELECT * FROM data WHERE site = '".$id."' AND disabled = '0' AND car NOT IN (SELECT * FROM
(SELECT * FROM data WHERE site = '".$id."'
AND disabled = '0'
AND carvotes NOT LIKE '0'
AND (time > ( now( ) - INTERVAL 14 DAY ))
GROUP BY car ORDER BY carvotes DESC LIMIT 0 , 10)
X order by time DESC) GROUP BY car DESC ORDER BY time desc LIMIT 0 , 30
Gives errors. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Please try the following...
$result = mysqli_query( $con,
"SELECT *
FROM data
WHERE site = '" . $id .
"' AND disabled = '0'
AND car NOT IN ( SELECT car
FROM ( SELECT car,
carvotes
FROM data
WHERE site = '" . $id .
"' AND disabled = '0'
AND carvotes NOT LIKE '0'
AND ( time > ( NOW( ) - INTERVAL 14 DAY ) )
GROUP BY car
ORDER BY carvotes DESC
LIMIT 10 ) X
)
GROUP BY car
ORDER BY time DESC
LIMIT 30" );
The main cause of your problem is that with car NOT IN ( SELECT * FROM ( SELECT *... you are trying to compare each record's value of car with each row returned by your subquery. IN requires you to have the same number of fields on both sides of the comparison. By using SELECT * at both levels of the subquery you were ensuring that the right side of the comparison had however many fields are in data versus your single field on the left, which confused MySQL.
Since you are aiming to compare to a single field, namely car, our subquery has to select just the car field from its dataset. Since the sort order of the subquery's results has no effect upon the IN comparison, and since our innermost query will be returning just car, I have removed the outer level of the subquery.
Beyond changing the first part of the subquery to SELECT car, the only other change that I have made to the subquery is to change LIMIT 0, 10 to LIMIT 10. The former means limit to the the 10 records that are offset by 0 from the first record. This is useful if you want records 6 to 15, but redundant for 1 to 10 as LIMIT 10 has the same affect and is slightly simpler. Ditto for LIMIT 0, 30 at the end of your overall statement.
As for the main body of the statement, I have not made any attempt to specify what fields (or aggregate functions of those fields) should be returned since you have made no statement indicating what your requirements / preferences are. If you are satisfied that GROUP BY has left you with a still valid set of values, then all the good, but if not then I recommend that you rewrite your Question to be specific about that detail.
By default, MySQL sorts the data subjected to a GROUP BY into ascending order, but if an ORDER BY clause is also present then it overrides the GROUP BY's sort pattern. As such, there is no benefit to specifying DESC after either of your GROUP BY car clauses, so I have removed it where it occurs.
Interesting Sidenote : You can override a GROUP BY's sort by specifying ORDER BY NULL.
If you have any questions or comments, then please feel free to post a Comment accordingly.
Further Reading
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/order-by-optimization.html - on optimising your ORDER BY sorting
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/select.html - on the SELECT statement's syntax - specifically the parts to do with LIMIT.
https://www.w3schools.com/php/php_mysql_select_limit.asp - a simpler explanation of LIMIT

Answer 2

This is your query:
SELECT *
FROM data
WHERE site = '".$id."' AND disabled = '0' AND
car NOT IN (SELECT *
FROM (SELECT *
FROM data
WHERE site = '".$id."' AND
disabled = '0' AND
carvotes NOT LIKE '0' AND
(time > ( now( ) - INTERVAL 14 DAY ))
GROUP BY car
ORDER BY carvotes DESC
LIMIT 0 , 10
) x
ORDER BY time DESC
)
GROUP BY car DESC
ORDER BY time desc
LIMIT 0 , 30 ;
Several comments:
Do not wrap integer constants in single quotes. This can mislead people. This can mislead optimizers.
Do not use string functions on integers (such as like). Same reason.
NOT IN with subqueries is dangerous. The construct does not handle NULL values the way you expect. Use NOT EXISTS or LEFT JOIN instead.
When using subqueries, ORDER BY is almost never appropriate.
Never use SELECT * with GROUP BY. It is just wrong. Happily, MySQL 5.7 has changed its defaults to reject this anti-pattern
So, a better way to write this query is something like this:
SELECT d.car, MAX(time) as time
FROM data d LEFT JOIN
(SELECT d2.*
FROM data d2
WHERE d2.site = '".$id."' AND
d2.disabled = 0 AND
d2.carvotes NOT LIKE 0 AND
(d2.time > ( now( ) - INTERVAL 14 DAY ))
GROUP BY d2.car
ORDER BY carvotes DESC
LIMIT 0 , 10
) car10
ON d.car = car10.car
WHERE d.site = '".$id."' AND d.disabled = 0' AND
car10.car IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY car DESC
ORDER BY MAX(time) desc
LIMIT 0 , 30 ;
Alternatively, use SELECT * and remove the GROUP BY in the outer query.