Count distinct occurrences of items among multiple columns in a pattern - php

Question

I am working on a survey application using MySql and PHP
The responses will be in the following format:
+-c1_1-+-c1_2-+-c1_3-+-c1_1-+-c1_2-+-c1_3-+-....
+ red + blue + pink + cyan + red + gray + ....
+ black+ pink + plum + red + blue + gray + ....
+ cyan + red + blue + blue + pink + plum + ....
+------+------+------+------+------+------+ ....
c1_1 represents Column_For_Question_1_With_Rank_1
c1_2 represents Column_For_Question_1_With_Rank_2
c1_3 represents Column_For_Question_1_With_Rank_3
c2_1 represents Column_For_Question_2_With_Rank_1
c2_2 represents Column_For_Question_2_With_Rank_2
c2_3 represents Column_For_Question_2_With_Rank_3
Scoring is like this:
Rank 1 = color in column cX_1 = gets 3 marks (c1_1,c2_1,c3_1..)
Rank 2 = color in column cX_2 = gets 2 marks (c1_2,c2_2,c3_2..)
Rank 3 = color in column cX_3 = gets 1 mark (c1_3,c2_3,c3_3..)
Score of Red:
appears in cX_1 two time = 3x2=6
appears in cX_2 two times = 2x2=4
So Red gets a score of 6+4=10
Score of Blue:
appears in cX_1 one time = 3x1=3
appears in cX_2 two times = 2x2=4
appears in cX_3 two times = 1x2=2
So blue gets a score of 3+4+2 = 9
Is it possible to write an effective query to arrive at a result like:
+-color-+-score-+
+ red + 10 +
+ blue + 9 +
+ xxx + # +
+ xxx + # +
+ xxx + # +
+-------+-------+
If that is not possible, atleast the number of occurances like:
+-color-+-n_cX_1-+-n_cX_2-+-n_cX_3-+
+ red + 2 + 2 + 0 +
+ blue + 1 + 2 + 2 +
+ xxx + # + # + # +
+ xxx + # + # + # +
+ xxx + # + # + # +
+ xxx + # + # + # +
+-------+--------+--------+--------+
Actually the colors will be replaced by people names.
Each 'set of three consecutive columns' (cX_1,cX_2,cX_3) represent first, second and third ranks rated for each of 9 questions. So there will be 3x9=27 columns
Can someone please help me with this? I am thinking on using count(*) repeatedly but I am sure it is a wrong approach. Searched a lot before posting but could not solve it.
Edit 1:
Want to mention that there might be almost 50 people names in these columns. And each row would represent response from one examiner doing the survey. There will be about 100 such examiners and hence about 100 rows.

Answer 1

Here is my solution, i am messing with PHP more, so my answer will be by PHP side, if you want SQL solution, you should wait for some time to let another user add SQL side solution,
You will get this kind of array in PHP from MySQL,
$result = [
'c1_1'=>['red','black','cyan'],
'c1_2'=>['blue','pink','red'],
'c1_3'=>['pink','plum','blue'],
'c2_1'=>['cyan','red','blue'],
'c2_2'=>['red','blue','pink'],
'c2_3'=>['gray','gray','plum']
];
Now, generate an users array having each user's achievements in each category,
$users = [];
foreach($result as $k => $v)
{
foreach($v as $user)
{
$users[$user][] = $k;
}
}
Now, $users array will look like,
array (size=7)
'red' =>
array (size=4)
0 => string 'c1_1' (length=4)
1 => string 'c1_2' (length=4)
2 => string 'c2_1' (length=4)
3 => string 'c2_2' (length=4)
'black' =>
array (size=1)
0 => string 'c1_1' (length=4)
'cyan' =>
array (size=2)
0 => string 'c1_1' (length=4)
1 => string 'c2_1' (length=4)
'blue' =>
array (size=4)
0 => string 'c1_2' (length=4)
1 => string 'c1_3' (length=4)
2 => string 'c2_1' (length=4)
3 => string 'c2_2' (length=4)
'pink' =>
array (size=3)
0 => string 'c1_2' (length=4)
1 => string 'c1_3' (length=4)
2 => string 'c2_2' (length=4)
'plum' =>
array (size=2)
0 => string 'c1_3' (length=4)
1 => string 'c2_3' (length=4)
'gray' =>
array (size=2)
0 => string 'c2_3' (length=4)
1 => string 'c2_3' (length=4)
Now, define a function to calculate marks, by passing the array by user we just generated,
function marks_of($input)
{
$marks_index = ['_1'=>3, '_2'=>2, '_3'=>1]; // define marks here
$marks = 0;
foreach($input as $marking)
{
$marks += $marks_index[substr($marking, -2)];
}
return $marks;
}
You need to define marks in each category as i commented in the above code.
Now, use it like,
$marks_of_red = marks_of($users['red']);
will give
int 10
To generate an array having each user's marks by name,
$all_users_marks = [];
foreach($users as $name => $achievements)
{
$all_users_marks[$name] = marks_of($users[$name]);
}
Now, $all_users_marks is
array (size=7)
'red' => int 10
'black' => int 3
'cyan' => int 6
'blue' => int 8
'pink' => int 5
'plum' => int 2
'gray' => int 2
As i already said, wait for someone if you want MySQL sided answer.

Answer 2

Normalize the table like this:
question | rank | name
Then use this query to get the total scores:
SELECT name, SUM( 4 - rank ) score FROM mytable GROUP BY name ORDER BY score DESC