How to show the top 3 business in sql? - php

Question

Alright so i need to post the top 3 business categories with the top searches. I've tried the advice provided to be online:
$sql = "select search, city, business, count(*)
from vendor
group by category = 'Beauty Salon'
order by count(*) desc
fetch first 3 rows only";
I've tried:
$sql = "SELECT search, city, business,
COUNT(*) AS total FROM vendor
WHERE category = 'Beauty Salon' GROUP BY ASC LIMIT 3";
I've had others but to be honest I've tried it in so many ways i can't remember the sources.
I hope you can help me with this. Thank you!
Here is the full code i have been trying maybe it has nothing to do with the sql, but what comes afterwards.
<?php
include '../s.php';
$sql = "SELECT search, city, business, COUNT(*) AS total FROM vendor WHERE category = 'Beauty Salon' GROUP BY ASC LIMIT 3";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
// output data of each row
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc())
{ ?>
<table class="demo">
<thead>
<tr class="titledemo" align="left">
<th width="25%">Ranking</th>
<th width="25%">Business</th>
<th width="25%">Searches</th>
<th width="25%">Category</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>1</td>
<td>
<? echo "<strong>" . $row["business"]. "<br></strong>";?>
</td>
<td>
<? echo "" . $row["search"]. "<br>";
?>
</td>
<td>
<? echo "" . $row["city"]. "<br>"; ?>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<?
}
} else {
echo "0 results";
}
$conn->close();
?>
NOTE: when it did show before it would not align the rows from the top the least. It is showing 100, 200, 300 and not 300, 200, 100. I do believe that it is grabbing the top to lest by the date it was inserted because that is how the numbers are set in my database. I didn't understand since I've tried DESC and ASC and none showed what i needed. It should be based on search since that's the number amount of searches for each company.

Answer 1

You need a subquery first before limiting your results.
select * from (select search, city, business, count(*) ct
from vendor
where category = 'Beauty Salon'
group by search, city, business) t
order by ct asc
limit 3

Answer 2

Try this :
SELECT search, city, business,
COUNT(*) AS total FROM vendor
WHERE category = 'Beauty Salon' and ROWNUM <=3

Answer 3

try "TOP 3" after SELECT.
SELECT TOP 3 search, city, business
FROM vendor
GROUP BY category = 'Beauty Salon'