MYSQL For/While Loop - mysql

Question

Is it possible to do a For or While loop in MYSQL?
I've got the following code extract, but the full code goes up to home_id_15, home_score_15, away_id_15 and away_score_15:
$query3 = '
SELECT match_date, fixture_id, COUNT(a.home) AS home, SUM(a.points) AS points FROM
(
SELECT match_date, fixture_id, home_id_1 AS home, home_score_1 AS points FROM scores
WHERE home_id_1 =' .intval($_REQUEST['ID']).'
UNION ALL
SELECT match_date, fixture_id, away_id_1 AS home, away_score_1 AS points
FROM scores
WHERE away_id_1 =' .intval($_REQUEST['ID']).'
UNION ALL
SELECT match_date, fixture_id, home_id_2 AS home, home_score_2 AS points
FROM scores
WHERE home_id_2 =' .intval($_REQUEST['ID']).'
UNION ALL
SELECT match_date, fixture_id, away_id_2 AS home, away_score_2 AS points
FROM scores
WHERE away_id_2 =' .intval($_REQUEST['ID']).'
UNION ALL) a
GROUP BY match_date'
The first and second sub-SELECTS are basically being repeated until they reach 15.
This seems a bit long-winded and I was wondering if it's possible to use a loop in MYSQL to output
home_id_1, home_score_1, away_id_1, away_score_1 [up to] home_id_15, home_score_15, away_id_15, away_score_15
, respectively?
Thanks,
Dan.

Answer 1

It looks like you might need to normalize your database a little bit more. Let's say you had 6 scores for each row. Instead of making each score a column, make a separate table called "scores" or something like that with a foreign key column and a score column. Then join the table with this scores table.
Example:
TABLE: team
team_id
name
TABLE: scores
team_id
score
SELECT t.*, s.score
FROM team t
join scores s
on t.team_id=s.team_id;
Todo: Add the concept of matches into your schema and the Join