Getting different results from group by and distinct - mysql

this is my first post here since most of the time I already found a suitable solution :)
However this time nothing seems to help properly.
Im trying to migrate information from some mysql Database I have just read-only access to.
My problem is similar to this one: Group by doesn't give me the newest group
I also need to get the latest information out of some tables but my tables have >300k entries therefore checking whether the "time-attribute-value" is the same as in the subquery (like suggested in the first answer) would be too slow (once I did "... WHERE EXISTS ..." and the server hung up).
In addition to that I can hardly find the important information (e.g. time) in a single attribute and there never is a single primary key.Until now I did it like it was suggested in the second answer by joining with subquery that contains latest "time-attribute-entry" and some primary keys but that gets me in a huge mess after using multiple joins and unions with the results.
Therefore I would prefer using the having statement like here: Select entry with maximum value of column after grouping
But when I tried it out and looked for a good candidate as the "time-attribute" I noticed that this queries give me two different results (more = 39721, less = 37870)
SELECT COUNT(MATNR) AS MORE
FROM(
SELECT DISTINCT
LAB_MTKNR AS MATNR,
LAB_STG AS FACH,
LAB_STGNR AS STUDIENGANG
FROM
FKT_LAB
) AS TEMP1
SELECT COUNT(MATNR) AS LESS
FROM(
SELECT
LAB_MTKNR AS MATNR,
LAB_STG AS FACH,
LAB_STGNR AS STUDIENGANG,
LAB_PDATUM
FROM
FKT_LAB
GROUP BY
LAB_MTKNR,
LAB_STG,
LAB_STGNR
HAVING LAB_PDATUM = MAX(LAB_PDATUM)
)AS TEMP2
Although both are applied to the same table and use "GROUP BY" / "SELECT DISTINCT" on the same entries.
Any ideas?
If nothing helps and I have to go back to my mess I will use string variables as placeholders to tidy it up but then I lose the overview of how many subqueries, joins and unions I have in one query... how many temproal tables will the server be able to cope with?

Your second query is not doing what you expect it to be doing. This is the query:
SELECT COUNT(MATNR) AS LESS
FROM (SELECT LAB_MTKNR AS MATNR, LAB_STG AS FACH, LAB_STGNR AS STUDIENGANG, LAB_PDATUM
FROM FKT_LAB
GROUP BY LAB_MTKNR, LAB_STG, LAB_STGNR
HAVING LAB_PDATUM = MAX(LAB_PDATUM)
) TEMP2;
The problem is the having clause. You are mixing an unaggregated column (LAB_PDATUM) with an aggregated value (MAX(LAB_PDATAUM)). What MySQL does is choose an arbitrary value for the column and compare it to the max.
Often, the arbitrary value will not be the maximum value, so the rows get filtered. The reference you give (although an accepted answer) is incorrect. I have put a comment there.
If you want the most recent value, here is a relatively easy way:
SELECT COUNT(MATNR) AS LESS
FROM (SELECT LAB_MTKNR AS MATNR, LAB_STG AS FACH, LAB_STGNR AS STUDIENGANG,
max(LAB_PDATUM) as maxLAB_PDATUM
FROM FKT_LAB
GROUP BY LAB_MTKNR, LAB_STG, LAB_STGNR
) TEMP2;
It does not, however, affect the outer count.

Related

SQL Query: Joining on a SUM()

I'm trying to run a query that sums the value of items and then JOIN on the value of that SUM.
So in the below code, the Contract_For is what I'm trying to Join on, but I'm not sure if that's possible.
SELECT `items_value`.`ContractId` as `Contract`,
`items_value`.`site` as `SiteID`,
SUM(`items_value`.`value`) as `Contract_For`,
`contractitemlists`.`Text` as `Contracted_Text`
FROM items_value
LEFT JOIN contractitemlists ON (`items_value`.`Contract_For`) = `contractitemlists`.`Ref`;
WHERE `items_value`.`ContractID`='2';
When I've face similar issues in the past, I've just created a view that holds the SUM, then joined to that in another view.
At the moment, the above sample is meant to work for just one dummy value, but it's intended to be stored procedure, where the user selects the ContractID. The error I get at the moment is 'Unknown Column items_value.Contract_For
You cannot use aliases or aggregate using expressions from the SELECT clause anywhere but HAVING and ORDER BY*; you need to make the first "part" a subquery, and then JOIN to that.
It might be easier to understand, though a bit oversimplified and not precisely correct, if you look at it this way as far as order of evaluation goes...
FROM (Note: JOIN is only within a FROM)
WHERE
GROUP BY
SELECT
HAVING
ORDER BY
In actual implementation, "under the hood", most SQL implementations actually use information from each section to optimize other sections (like using some where conditions to reduce records JOINed in a FROM); but this is the conceptual order that must be adhered to.
*In some versions of MSSQL, you cannot use aliases from the SELECT in HAVING or ORDER BY either.
Your query needs to be something like this:
SELECT s.*
, `cil`.`Text` as `Contracted_Text`
FROM (
SELECT `iv`.`ContractId` as `Contract`
, `iv`.`site` as `SiteID`
, SUM(`iv`.`value`) as `Contract_For`
FROM items_value AS iv
WHERE `iv`.`ContractID`='2'
) AS s
LEFT JOIN contractitemlists AS cil ON `s`.`Contract_For` = cil.`Ref`
;
But as others have mentioned, the lack of a GROUP BY is something to be looked into; as in "what if there are multiple site values."

Query takes too long to run

I am running the below query to retrive the unique latest result based on a date field within a same table. But this query takes too much time when the table is growing. Any suggestion to improve this is welcome.
select
t2.*
from
(
select
(
select
id
from
ctc_pre_assets ti
where
ti.ctcassettag = t1.ctcassettag
order by
ti.createddate desc limit 1
) lid
from
(
select
distinct ctcassettag
from
ctc_pre_assets
) t1
) ro,
ctc_pre_assets t2
where
t2.id = ro.lid
order by
id
Our able may contain same row multiple times, but each row with different time stamp. My object is based on a single column for example assettag I want to retrieve single row for each assettag with latest timestamp.
It's simpler, and probably faster, to find the newest date for each ctcassettag and then join back to find the whole row that matches.
This does assume that no ctcassettag has multiple rows with the same createddate, in which case you can get back more than one row per ctcassettag.
SELECT
ctc_pre_assets.*
FROM
ctc_pre_assets
INNER JOIN
(
SELECT
ctcassettag,
MAX(createddate) AS createddate
FROM
ctc_pre_assets
GROUP BY
ctcassettag
)
newest
ON newest.ctcassettag = ctc_pre_assets.ctcassettag
AND newest.createddate = ctc_pre_assets.createddate
ORDER BY
ctc_pre_assets.id
EDIT: To deal with multiple rows with the same date.
You haven't actually said how to pick which row you want in the event that multiple rows are for the same ctcassettag on the same createddate. So, this solution just chooses the row with the lowest id from amongst those duplicates.
SELECT
ctc_pre_assets.*
FROM
ctc_pre_assets
WHERE
ctc_pre_assets.id
=
(
SELECT
lookup.id
FROM
ctc_pre_assets lookup
WHERE
lookup.ctcassettag = ctc_pre_assets.ctcassettag
ORDER BY
lookup.createddate DESC,
lookup.id ASC
LIMIT
1
)
This does still use a correlated sub-query, which is slower than a simple nested-sub-query (such as my first answer), but it does deal with the "duplicates".
You can change the rules on which row to pick by changing the ORDER BY in the correlated sub-query.
It's also very similar to your own query, but with one less join.
Nested queries are always known to take longer time than a conventional query since. Can you append 'explain' at the start of the query and put your results here? That will help us analyse the exact query/table which is taking longer to response.
Check if the table has indexes. Unindented tables are not advisable(until unless obviously required to be unindented) and are alarmingly slow in executing queries.
On the contrary, I think the best case is to avoid writing nested queries altogether. Bette, run each of the queries separately and then use the results(in array or list format) in the second query.
First some questions that you should at least ask yourself, but maybe also give us an answer to improve the accuracy of our responses:
Is your data normalized? If yes, maybe you should make an exception to avoid this brutal subquery problem
Are you using indexes? If yes, which ones, and are you using them to the fullest?
Some suggestions to improve the readability and maybe performance of the query:
- Use joins
- Use group by
- Use aggregators
Example (untested, so might not work, but should give an impression):
SELECT t2.*
FROM (
SELECT id
FROM ctc_pre_assets
GROUP BY ctcassettag
HAVING createddate = max(createddate)
ORDER BY ctcassettag DESC
) ro
INNER JOIN ctc_pre_assets t2 ON t2.id = ro.lid
ORDER BY id
Using normalization is great, but there are a few caveats where normalization causes more harm than good. This seems like a situation like this, but without your tables infront of me, I can't tell for sure.
Using distinct the way you are doing, I can't help but get the feeling you might not get all relevant results - maybe someone else can confirm or deny this?
It's not that subqueries are all bad, but they tend to create massive scaleability issues if written incorrectly. Make sure you use them the right way (google it?)
Indexes can potentially save you for a bunch of time - if you actually use them. It's not enough to set them up, you have to create queries that actually uses your indexes. Google this as well.

Two similar MySQL queries give different results

I have a database that holds readings for devices. I am trying to write a query that can select the latest reading from a device. I have two queries that are seemingly the same and that I'd expect to give the same results; however they do not. The queries are as follows:
First query:
select max(datetime), reading
from READINGS
where device_id = '1234567890'
Second query:
select datetime, reading
from READINGS
where device_id = '1234567890' and datetime = (select max(datetime)
from READINGS
where device_id = '1234567890')
The they both give different results for the reading attribute. The second one is the one that gives the right result but why does the first give something different?
This is MySQL behaviour at work. When you use grouping the columns you select must either appear in the group by or be an aggregate function eg min(), max(). Mixing aggregates and normal columns is not allowed in most other database flavours.
The first query will just return the first rating in each group (first in the sense of where it appears on the file system), which is most likely wrong.
The second query correlates rating with maximum time stamp leading to the correct result.
It is because you are not using a GROUP BY reading clause, which you should be using in both queries.
This is normal on MySQL. See the documentation on this:
If you use a group function in a statement containing no GROUP BY clause, it is equivalent to grouping on all rows.
Also, read http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/group-by-hidden-columns.html
You can use the Explain and Explan extended commands to know more about your queries.

only select the row if the field value is unique

I sort the rows on date. If I want to select every row that has a unique value in the last column, can I do this with sql?
So I would like to select the first row, second one, third one not, fourth one I do want to select, and so on.
What you want are not unique rows, but rather one per group. This can be done by taking the MIN(pk_artikel_Id) and GROUP BY fk_artikel_bron. This method uses an IN subquery to get the first pk_artikel_id and its associated fk_artikel_bron for each unique fk_artikel_bron and then uses that to get the remaining columns in the outer query.
SELECT * FROM tbl
WHERE pk_artikel_id IN
(SELECT MIN(pk_artikel_id) AS id FROM tbl GROUP BY fk_artikel_bron)
Although MySQL would permit you to add the rest of the columns in the SELECT list initially, avoiding the IN subquery, that isn't really portable to other RDBMS systems. This method is a little more generic.
It can also be done with a JOIN against the subquery, which may or may not be faster. Hard to say without benchmarking it.
SELECT *
FROM tbl
JOIN (
SELECT
fk_artikel_bron,
MIN(pk_artikel_id) AS id
FROM tbl
GROUP BY fk_artikel_bron) mins ON tbl.pk_artikel_id = mins.id
This is similar to Michael's answer, but does it with a self-join instead of a subquery. Try it out to see how it performs:
SELECT * from tbl t1
LEFT JOIN tbl t2
ON t2.fk_artikel_bron = t1.fk_artikel_bron
AND t2.pk_artikel_id < t1.pk_artikel_id
WHERE t2.pk_artikel_id IS NULL
If you have the right indexes, this type of join often out performs subqueries (since derived tables don't use indexes).
This non-standard, mysql-only trick will select the first row encountered for each value of pk_artikel_bron.
select *
...
group by pk_artikel_bron
Like it or not, this query produces the output asked for.
Edited
I seem to be getting hammered here, so here's the disclaimer:
This only works for mysql 5+
Although the mysql specification says the row returned using this technique is not predictable (ie you could get any row as the "first" encountered), in fact in all cases I've ever seen, you'll get the first row as per the order selected, so to get a predictable row that works in practice (but may not work in future releases but probably will), select from an ordered result:
select * from (
select *
...
order by pk_artikel_id) x
group by pk_artikel_bron

MySQL: Include COUNT of SELECT Query Results as a Column (Without Grouping)

I have a simple report sending framework that basically does the following things:
It performs a SELECT query, it makes some text-formatted tables based on the results, it sends an e-mail, and it performs an UPDATE query.
This system is a generalization of an older one, in which all of the operations were hard coded. However, in pushing all of the logic of what I'd like to do into the SELECT query, I've run across a problem.
Before, I could get most of the information for my text tables by saying:
SELECT Name, Address FROM Databas.Tabl WHERE Status='URGENT';
Then, when I needed an extra number for the e-mail, also do:
SELECT COUNT(*) FROM Databas.Tabl WHERE Status='URGENT' AND TimeLogged='Noon';
Now, I no longer have the luxury of multiple SELECT queries. What I'd like to do is something like:
SELECT Tabl.Name, Tabl.Address, COUNT(Results.UID) AS Totals
FROM Databas.Tabl
LEFT JOIN Databas.Tabl Results
ON Tabl.UID = Results.UID
AND Results.TimeLogged='Noon'
WHERE Status='URGENT';
This, at least in my head, says to get a total count of all the rows that were SELECTed and also have some conditional.
In reality, though, this gives me the "1140 - Mixing of GROUP columns with no GROUP columns illegal if no GROUP BY" error. The problem is, I don't want to GROUP BY. I want this COUNT to redundantly repeat the number of results that SELECT found whose TimeLogged='Noon'. Or I want to remove the AND clause and include, as a column in the result of the SELECT statement, the number of results that that SELECT statement found.
GROUP BY is not the answer, because that causes it to get the COUNT of only the rows who have the same value in some column. And COUNT might not even be the way to go about this, although it's what comes to mind. FOUND_ROWS() won't do the trick, since it needs to be part of a secondary query, and I only get one (plus there's no LIMIT involved), and ROW_COUNT() doesn't seem to work since it's a SELECT statement.
I may be approaching it from the wrong angle entirely. But what I want to do is get COUNT-type information about the results of a SELECT query, as well as all the other information that the SELECT query returned, in one single query.
=== Here's what I've got so far ===
SELECT Tabl.Name, Tabl.Address, Results.Totals
FROM Databas.Tabl
LEFT JOIN (SELECT COUNT(*) AS Totals, 0 AS Bonus
FROM Databas.Tabl
WHERE TimeLogged='Noon'
GROUP BY NULL) Results
ON 0 = Results.Bonus
WHERE Status='URGENT';
This does use sub-SELECTs, which I was initially hoping to avoid, but now realize that hope may have been foolish. Plus it seems like the COUNTing SELECT sub-queries will be less costly than the main query since the COUNT conditionals are all on one table, but the real SELECT I'm working with has to join on multiple different tables for derived information.
The key realizations are that I can GROUP BY NULL, which will return a single result so that COUNT(*) will actually catch everything, and that I can force a correlation to this column by just faking a Bonus column with 0 on both tables.
It looks like this is the solution I will be using, but I can't actually accept it as an answer until tomorrow. Thanks for all the help.
SELECT Tabl.Name, Tabl.Address, Results.Totals
FROM Databas.Tabl
LEFT JOIN (SELECT COUNT(*) AS Totals, 0 AS Bonus
FROM Databas.Tabl
WHERE TimeLogged='Noon'
GROUP BY NULL) Results
ON 0 = Results.Bonus
WHERE Status='URGENT';
I figured this out thanks to ideas generated by multiple answers, although it's not actually the direct result of any one. Why this does what I need has been explained in the edit of the original post, but I wanted to be able to resolve the question with the proper answer in case anyone else wants to perform this silly kind of operation. Thanks to all who helped.
You could probably do a union instead. You'd have to add a column to the original query and select 0 in it, then UNION that with your second query, which returns a single column. To do that, the second query must also select empty fields to match the first.
SELECT Cnt = 0, Name, Address FROM Databas.Tabl WHERE Status='URGENT'
UNION ALL
SELECT COUNT(*) as Cnt, Name='', Address='' FROM Databas.Tabl WHERE Status='URGENT' AND TimeLogged='Noon';
It's a bit of a hack, but what you're trying to do isn't ideal...
Does this do what you need?
SELECT Tabl.Name ,
Tabl.Address ,
COUNT(Results.UID) AS GrandTotal,
COUNT(CASE WHEN Results.TimeLogged='Noon' THEN 1 END) AS NoonTotal
FROM Databas.Tabl
LEFT JOIN Databas.Tabl Results
ON Tabl.UID = Results.UID
WHERE Status ='URGENT'
GROUP BY Tabl.Name,
Tabl.Address
WITH ROLLUP;
The API you're using to access the database should be able to report to you how many rows were returned - say, if you're running perl, you could do something like this:
my $sth = $dbh->prepare("SELECT Name, Address FROM Databas.Tabl WHERE Status='URGENT'");
my $rv = $sth->execute();
my $rows = $sth->rows;
Grouping by Tabl.id i dont believe would mess up the results. Give it a try and see if thats what you want.