mysql query - conditional statements? - mysql

Question

Here are my tables:
files
+----+--------+
| id | name |
+----+--------+
| 2 | file_1 |
| 3 | file_2 |
| 5 | file_3 |
+----+--------+
files_already_viewed
+----+---------+----------+------+
| id | file_id | category | user |
+----+---------+----------+------+
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
+----+---------+----------+------+
categories_files_join
+--------+---------+
| cat_id | file_id |
+--------+---------+
| 1 | 2 |
| 1 | 5 |
| 5 | 3 |
| 1 | 3 |
+--------+---------+
file_2 (which has an id of 3) has two categories associated with it, cat_id 5 and cat_id 1.
It has been viewed once by a user searching for files under the category 5.
But now the user is searching for files under the category 1.
I need a query that won't show file_2 under the "1" category until all the other files with a category id of 1 have been viewed first, since the user already viewed file_2. Basically putting file_2 at the end of the list.
Here is my query so far:
SELECT name FROM files
WHERE files.id NOT IN (
SELECT file_id FROM files_already_viewed
WHERE user='1')
ORDER BY most_viewed DESC
LIMIT 1
I order my search by the most popular viewed file. But i don't want to show files that have already been viewed regardless of category until all other files have been viewed with in that specific category.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks!

Answer 1

Actually, your query will not show files already shown. What you want to do is to order those already shown files at the bottom. So, basically you'll have to sets of data: first, the data that matches the needed criteria and that the user has not been shown yet and then the data that matches the needed criteria but the user has been shown.
The way I'm handling the sets is by adding a customSort id for each set and then ordering by it. Now the short explanation is that the first group I get it by faking a MINUS operation with a left join: I get all the files that have not yet been seen. Then, the second group is a bit easier as it just needs to get all the files that have already been seen. So, the UNION of both sets in the customSort order would be the result you're looking for so now you just need to filter that result by the current query criteria (category = 1 in this case).
select file_id from (
select distinct cf1.cat_id, cf1.file_id, 1 as customSort
from CategoriesFiles1 cf1
left join FilesViewed1 fv1 on (fv1.file_id = cf1.file_id)
where (fv1.file_id is null)
union
select distinct cf2.cat_id, cf2.file_id, 2 as customSort
from CategoriesFiles2 cf2
join FilesViewed2 fv2 on (fv2.file_id = cf2.file_id)
) FinalResult
where (FinalResult.cat_id = 1)
order by customSort
Here is a link with the example. You can comment each data insert in files_already_viewed to see how, after viewing a file, the result changes. Besides, changing select file_id from to select * from will allow you to clearly see which set each row belongs to.
Let me know if this works.