I have this situation after my SQL stament: One single column with the same result. For example, the age of all people with blue eyes and green jeans, will return me one column "age" with the result for example 50 years (because all people with this characteristics have 50), repeted as many time as there are people with this parameters in the DB.
How I can do in PDO (or SQL) to filter or to get only one result, or only one fild (50)?
I try: fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC) and fetchColumn() but both return a array or nothing
It's SQL.
SELECT age FROM people WHERE eyes='blue' AND jeans='green' LIMIT 1
Note that LIMIT part that will limit the results to only one row, which you'll be able to get with PDO's fetchColumn():
$sql = "SELECT age FROM people WHERE eyes='blue' AND jeans='green' LIMIT 1";
$age = $pdo->query($sql)->fetchColumn();
Related
I am counting the entries in my SQL database:
$sql = "SELECT * FROM files WHERE id = ?";
$q = $pdo->prepare($sql);
$q->execute([$id]);
$rowCount =$q->rowCount();
The result of $rowCount is 500000.
But to output this single number takes 5 seconds! Is it possible to get this result faster?
Use the COUNT() function https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/counting-rows.html:
$sql = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM files WHERE id = ?";
Also ensure that 'id' is an indexed column:
https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/mysql-indexes.html
Replace * with a field(use auto-increment id) - This will reduce the time a bit.
Index that field. - If you use indexed field the query performance will increase.
SELECT * ..., then counting in PHP, requires shoveling all columns of all rows back to PHP. That's a lot of effort for very little gain.
SELECT COUNT(col) ... does the counting in by MySQL, but it must check for whether col is NULL. And it needs to get at the value of col for every row.
SELECT COUNT(*) ... counts the rows by whatever way is most efficient. This involves looking for the 'smallest' index (or the whole table, if no secondary indexes), and counting through it.
You must learn about INDEXes to get anywhere in databases! This is only one minor use for them.
SQL Queries /P1/
SELECT EXISTS(SELECT /p2/ FROM table WHERE id = 1)
SELECT /p2/ FROM table WHERE id = 1 LIMIT 1
SQL SELECT /P2/
COUNT(id)
id
PHP PDO Function /P3/
fetchColumn()
rowCount()
From the following 3 Parts, What is the best method to check if a row exists or not with and without the ability to retrieve data like.
Retrievable:
/Query/ SELECT id FROM table WHERE id = 1 LIMIT 1
/Function/ rowCount()
Irretrievable
/Query/ SELECT EXISTS(SELECT COUNT(id) FROM table WHERE id = 1)
/Function/ fetchColumn()
In your opinion, What is the best way to do that?
By best I guess you mean consuming the least resources on both MySQL server and client.
That is this:
SELECT COUNT(*) count FROM table WHERE id=1
You get a one-row, one-column result set. If that column is zero, the row was not found. If the column is one, a row was found. If the column is greater that one, multiple rows were found.
This is a good solution for a few reasons.
COUNT(*) is decently efficient, especially if id is indexed.
It has a simple code path in your client software, because it always returns just one row. You don't have to sweat edge cases like no rows or multiple rows.
The SQL is as clear as it can be about what you're trying to do. That's helpful to the next person to work on your code.
Adding LIMIT 1 will do nothing if added to this query. It is already a one-row result set, inherently. You can add it, but then you'll make the next person looking at your code wonder what you were trying to do, and wonder whether you made some kind of mistake.
COUNT(*) counts all rows that match the WHERE statement. COUNT(id) is slightly slower because it counts all rows unless their id values are null. It has to make that check. For that reason, people usually use COUNT(*) unless there's some chance they want to ignore null values. If you put COUNT(id) in your code, the next person to work on it will have to spend some time figuring out whether you meant anything special by counting id rather than *.
You can use either; they give the same result.
Let's say I have a table with following columns: id-1, id-2, col-1, col-2, col-3
Here, id-1 is the primary key and is auto-incremented. id-2 is a different id and is not necessary to be unique. There are multiple instances of same id in that column. col-1, col-2, col-3 are just necessary columns.
I pass a query to select data from the table.
mysqli_query($connect, SELECT * FROM table WHERE id-2='some_specific_id')
It will return multiple rows. I would like to know how can I target specific rows, say row number 3.
First, use ":
mysqli_query($connect, "SELECT * FROM table WHERE id-2 = 'some_specific_id'");
Target specific row? Do you mean to limit the fetched rows? Or get the 3rd row?
For limiting the fetched rows, you can use LIMIT:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE id-2='some_specific_id' LIMIT 3
For getting the third row:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE id-2='some_specific_id' LIMIT 2, 1
Well although it seems you just rather needed to learn basic SQL to get your answer, there is still the question in the title, that may attract other people whose problem is formulated exactly like that. So goes the answer:
Mysqli is not very convenient for this task, so we would use PDO.
In case your query is intended to return multiple rows and you need to address one of them by number (which is rather makes little sense, but anyway), use fetchAll() method:
$stmt = $connect->prepare("SELECT * FROM table WHERE id2=?");
$stmt->execute(['some specific id']);
$data = $stmt->fetchAll();
and you will be able to address returned rows by number, starting from zero:
echo $data[0]['col1'];
However, it makes more sense to address the returned rows by some unique id. In this case just add this unique field fiset in the field list and then use the special PDO street magic:
$stmt = $connect->prepare("SELECT id1, table.* FROM table WHERE id2=?);
$stmt->execute(['some specific id']);
$data = $stmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_UNIQUE);
and you will be able to address returned rows by that unique field :
echo $data[$id1]['col1'];
Use LIMIT to get what you want like:
SELECT * FROM table WHERE id-2='some_specific_id' LIMIT 2, 1;
Or, if you want to fetch from array, then use the 3rd index of array.
LIMIT Explanation:
The following illustrates the LIMIT clause syntax with two arguments:
SELECT
column1,column2,...
FROM
table
LIMIT offset , count;
Let's examine the LIMIT clause parameters:
The offset specifies the offset of the first row to return. The offset of the first row is 0, not 1.
The count specifies the maximum number of rows to return.
I am using the following code to check if a row exists in my database:
$sql = "SELECT COUNT(1) FROM myTable WHERE user_id = :id_var";
$stmt = $conn->prepare($sql);
$stmt->bindParam(':id_var', $id_var);
$stmt->execute();
if ($stmt->fetch()[0]>0)
{
//... many lines of code
}
All of the code works and the doubts I have are concerning if the previous code is clean and efficient or if there is room for improvement.
Currently there are two questions bugging me with my previous code:
Should I have a LIMIT 1 at the end of my SQL statement? Does COUNT(1) already limit the amount of rows found by 1 or does the server keep searching for more records even after finding the first one?
The if ($stmt->fetch()[0]>0). Would this be the cleanest way to fetch the information from the SQL Query and execute the "if conditional"?
Of course if anyone spots anything else that can improve my code, I would love your feedback.
Q: Should I have a LIMIT 1 at the end of my SQL statement? Does COUNT(1) already limit the amount of rows found by 1 or does the server keep searching for more records even after finding the first one?
Your SELECT COUNT() FROM query will return one row, if the execution is successful, because there is no GROUP BY clause. There's no need to add a LIMIT 1 clause, it wouldn't have any affect.
The database will search for all rows that satisfy the conditions in the WHERE clause. If the user_id column is UNIQUE, and there is an index with that as the leading column, or, if that column is the PRIMARY KEY of the table... then the search for all matching rows will be efficient, using the index. If there isn't an index, then MySQL will need to search all the rows in the table.
It's the index that buys you good performance. You could write the query differently, to get a usable result. But what you have is fine.
Q: Is this the cleanest...
if ($stmt->fetch()[0]>0)
My personal preference would be to avoid that construct, and break that up into two or more statements. The normal pattern...separate statement to fetch the row, and then do a test.
Personally, I would tend to avoid the COUNT() and just get a row, and test whether there was a row to fetch...
$sql = "SELECT 1 AS `row_exists` FROM myTable WHERE user_id = :id_var";
$stmt = $conn->prepare($sql);
$stmt->bindParam(':id_var', $id_var);
$stmt->execute();
if($stmt->fetch()) {
// row found
} else {
// row not found
}
$stmt->closeCursor();
I'm trying to get 4 random results from a table that holds approx 7 million records. Additionally, I also want to get 4 random records from the same table that are filtered by category.
Now, as you would imagine doing random sorting on a table this large causes the queries to take a few seconds, which is not ideal.
One other method I thought of for the non-filtered result set would be to just get PHP to select some random numbers between 1 - 7,000,000 or so and then do an IN(...) with the query to only grab those rows - and yes, I know that this method has a caveat in that you may get less than 4 if a record with that id no longer exists.
However, the above method obviously will not work with the category filtering as PHP doesn't know which record numbers belong to which category and hence cannot select the record numbers to select from.
Are there any better ways I can do this? Only way I can think of would be to store the record id's for each category in another table and then select random results from that and then select only those record ID's from the main table in a secondary query; but I'm sure there is a better way!?
You could of course use the RAND() function on a query using a LIMIT and WHERE (for the category). That however as you pointed out, entails a scan of the database which takes time, especially in your case due to the volume of data.
Your other alternative, again as you pointed out, to store id/category_id in another table might prove a bit faster but again there has to be a LIMIT and WHERE on that table which will also contain the same amount of records as the master table.
A different approach (if applicable) would be to have a table per category and store in that the IDs. If your categories are fixed or do not change that often, then you should be able to use that approach. In that case you will effectively remove the WHERE from the clause and getting a RAND() with a LIMIT on each category table would be faster since each category table will contain a subset of records from your main table.
Some other alternatives would be to use a key/value pair database just for that operation. MongoDb or Google AppEngine can help with that and are really fast.
You could also go towards the approach of a Master/Slave in your MySQL. The slave replicates content in real time but when you need to perform the expensive query you query the slave instead of the master, thus passing the load to a different machine.
Finally you could go with Sphinx which is a lot easier to install and maintain. You can then treat each of those category queries as a document search and let Sphinx randomize the results. This way you offset this expensive operation to a different layer and let MySQL continue with other operations.
Just some issues to consider.
Working off your random number approach
Get the max id in the database.
Create a temp table to store your matches.
Loop n times doing the following
Generate a random number between 1 and maxId
Get the first record with a record Id greater than the random number and insert it into your temp table
Your temp table now contains your random results.
Or you could dynamically generate sql with a union to do the query in one step.
SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE ID > RAND() AND Category = zzz LIMIT 1
UNION
SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE ID > RAND() AND Category = zzz LIMIT 1
UNION
SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE ID > RAND() AND Category = zzz LIMIT 1
UNION
SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE ID > RAND() AND Category = zzz LIMIT 1
Note: my sql may not be valid, as I'm not a mySql guy, but the theory should be sound
First you need to get number of rows ... something like this
select count(1) from tbl where category = ?
then select a random number
$offset = rand(1,$rowsNum);
and select a row with offset
select * FROM tbl LIMIT $offset, 1
in this way you avoid missing ids. The only problem is you need to run second query several times. Union may help in this case.
For MySQl you can use
RAND()
SELECT column FROM table
ORDER BY RAND()
LIMIT 4