Alternate order by logic in MySQL - mysql

Question

I'm looking to allow for a custom ordering logic through mySQL that allows the following data set:
+----+-----------------+------------+-------+--+
| ID | item | Popularity | Views | |
+----+-----------------+------------+-------+--+
| 1 | A special place | 3 | 10 | |
| 2 | Another title | 5 | 12 | |
| 3 | Words go here | 1 | 15 | |
| 4 | A wonder | 2 | 8 | |
+----+-----------------+------------+-------+--+
To return an order that alternates, row by row, by popularity and then by views, so the return results look like:
+----+-----------------+------------+-------+--+
| ID | item | Popularity | Views | |
+----+-----------------+------------+-------+--+
| 3 | Words go here | 1 | 15 | |
| 2 | Another title | 5 | 12 | |
| 4 | A wonder | 2 | 8 | |
| 1 | A special place | 3 | 10 | |
+----+-----------------+------------+-------+--+
Where you will see the first row returns the 'most popular', the second row returns the most views, the third row returns the second most popular, and the 4th row returns the 2nd most views.
Currently I'm gathering an entire table through mySQL twice, and then merging these results in PHP. This isn't going to cut it when the database is large. Is this possible in mysql at all?

Answer 1

I guess something along these lines could work. Consider the following:
DROP TABLE IF EXISTS my_table;
CREATE TABLE my_table
(id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY
,x INT NOT NULL
,y INT NOT NULL
);
INSERT INTO my_table VALUES
(1,3,10),
(2,5,12),
(3,1,15),
(4,2, 8)
(5,4, 1);
We can rank x and y in turn, and then arrange those ranks in a single list - so will have x1,y1,x2,y2,etc - but all rows will appear twice; once for the x rank and once for the y rank...
SELECT * FROM
(
( SELECT a.*, COUNT(*) rank FROM my_table a JOIN my_table b ON b.x <= a.x GROUP BY a.id )
UNION ALL
( SELECT a.*, COUNT(*) rank FROM my_table a JOIN my_table b ON b.y <= a.y GROUP BY a.id )
) n
ORDER BY rank
+----+---+----+------+
| id | x | y | rank |
+----+---+----+------+
| 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | 15 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
| 4 | 2 | 8 | 2 |
| 1 | 3 | 10 | 3 |
| 1 | 3 | 10 | 3 |
| 5 | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| 2 | 5 | 12 | 4 |
| 2 | 5 | 12 | 5 |
| 3 | 1 | 15 | 5 |
+----+---+----+------+
Now we can just grab the lowest rank for each id...
SELECT id
, x
, y
FROM
(
( SELECT a.*, COUNT(*) rank FROM my_table a JOIN my_table b ON b.x <= a.x GROUP BY a.id )
UNION ALL
( SELECT a.*, COUNT(*) rank FROM my_table a JOIN my_table b ON b.y <= a.y GROUP BY a.id )
) m
GROUP
BY id,x,y
ORDER
BY MIN(rank);
+----+---+----+
| id | x | y |
+----+---+----+
| 3 | 1 | 15 |
| 5 | 4 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 | 8 |
| 1 | 3 | 10 |
| 2 | 5 | 12 |
+----+---+----+
Incidentally, this should be faster with variables - but I cannot make that solution work at present - senior moment, perhaps.