MySQL dynamically display distinct values from a column with count of occurrences? - mysql

Question

Using MySQL 5.5.34 on MAMP.
How do I display distinct values with count of occurrences ?
my_table looks like this:
id fruit
01 apple
02 orange
03 grape
04 apple
05 banana
06 orange
What i'm trying to display is something like:
apple 2
banana 1
grape 1
orange 2
fruits 6
I could hard code the values and use count with distinct but I'm sure there is a dynamic way. I've found some examples on here using group by and with rollup, but I can't seem to get the syntax right or find a example.
The non-dynamic way I'm doing right now:
SELECT fruit,COUNT(*) as count
FROM my_table
GROUP BY fruit
ORDER BY fruit ASC
WITH ROLLUP;
I hope somebody has some a clear example. I've been trying for many hours now. thanks!

Answer 1

You need to make the rollup row say fruits instead of NULL using the IFNULL() function
You also don't need ORDER BY
PROPOSED QUERY
SELECT IFNULL(fruit,'fruits') fruit,COUNT(*) as count
FROM my_table
GROUP BY fruit
WITH ROLLUP;
SAMPLE DATA
mysql> drop database if exists fruitdb;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> create database fruitdb;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
mysql> use fruitdb
Database changed
mysql> create table my_table
-> (id int not null auto_increment,
-> fruit varchar(20) not null,
-> primary key (id));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)
mysql> insert into my_table (fruit) values
-> ('apple'),('orange'),('grape'),
-> ('apple'),('banana'),('orange');
Query OK, 6 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 6 Duplicates: 0 Warnings: 0
mysql> select * from my_table;
+----+--------+
| id | fruit |
+----+--------+
| 1 | apple |
| 2 | orange |
| 3 | grape |
| 4 | apple |
| 5 | banana |
| 6 | orange |
+----+--------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql>
PROPOSED QUERY EXECUTED
mysql> SELECT IFNULL(fruit,'fruits') fruit,COUNT(*) as count
-> FROM my_table
-> GROUP BY fruit
-> WITH ROLLUP;
+--------+-------+
| fruit | count |
+--------+-------+
| apple | 2 |
| banana | 1 |
| grape | 1 |
| orange | 2 |
| fruits | 6 |
+--------+-------+
5 rows in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)
mysql>
GIVE IT A TRY !!!