SQL: selecting top N records per group

MySQL

A while back I presented(*) an SQL trick to present with non-aggregated column on a GROUP BY query, without use of subquery or derived tables.

Based on a similar concept, combined with string walking, I now present a query which selects top-n records for each group, ordered by some condition. It will require no subqueries. It executes faster than its more conventional alternatives.

[UPDATE: this is MySQL only. Others can use Window Functions where available]

Using the simple world database, we answer the following question:

What are the top 5 largest (by area) countries for each continent? What are their names, surface area and population?

Similar questions would be:

What were the latest 5 films rented by each customer?

What were the most presented advertisements for each user?

etc.

Step 1: getting the top

We already know how to get a single column’s value for the top country, as presented in the aforementioned post:

SELECT
 Continent,
 SUBSTRING_INDEX(
   GROUP_CONCAT(Name ORDER BY SurfaceArea DESC),
   ',', 1) AS Name
FROM
 Country
GROUP BY
 Continent
;
+---------------+--------------------+
| Continent     | Name               |
+---------------+--------------------+
| Asia          | China              |
| Europe        | Russian Federation |
| North America | Canada             |
| Africa        | Sudan              |
| Oceania       | Australia          |
| Antarctica    | Antarctica         |
| South America | Brazil             |
+---------------+--------------------+

Step 2: adding columns

This part is easy: just throw in the rest of the columns (again, only indicating the top country in each continent)

SELECT
 Continent,
 SUBSTRING_INDEX(
   GROUP_CONCAT(Name ORDER BY SurfaceArea DESC),
   ',', 1) AS Name,
 SUBSTRING_INDEX(
   GROUP_CONCAT(SurfaceArea ORDER BY SurfaceArea DESC),
   ',', 1) AS SurfaceArea,
 SUBSTRING_INDEX(
   GROUP_CONCAT(Population ORDER BY SurfaceArea DESC),
   ',', 1) AS Population
FROM
 Country
GROUP BY
 Continent
;

+---------------+--------------------+-------------+------------+
| Continent     | Name               | SurfaceArea | Population |
+---------------+--------------------+-------------+------------+
| Asia          | China              | 9572900.00  | 1277558000 |
| Europe        | Russian Federation | 17075400.00 | 146934000  |
| North America | Canada             | 9970610.00  | 31147000   |
| Africa        | Sudan              | 2505813.00  | 29490000   |
| Oceania       | Australia          | 7741220.00  | 18886000   |
| Antarctica    | Antarctica         | 13120000.00 | 0          |
| South America | Brazil             | 8547403.00  | 170115000  |
+---------------+--------------------+-------------+------------+

Step 3: casting

You’ll notice that the Population column from this last execution is aligned to the left. This is because it is believed to be a string. The GROUP_CONCAT clause concatenates values in one string, and SUBSTRING_INDEX parses a substring. The same applies to the SurfaceArea column. We’ll cast Population as UNSIGNED and SurfaceArea as DECIMAL:

SELECT
  Continent,
  SUBSTRING_INDEX(
    GROUP_CONCAT(Name ORDER BY SurfaceArea DESC),
    ',', 1) AS Name,
  CAST(
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(
      GROUP_CONCAT(SurfaceArea ORDER BY SurfaceArea DESC),
      ',', 1)
    AS DECIMAL(20,2)
    ) AS SurfaceArea,
  CAST(
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(
      GROUP_CONCAT(Population ORDER BY SurfaceArea DESC),
      ',', 1)
    AS UNSIGNED
    ) AS Population
FROM
 Country
GROUP BY
 Continent
;
+---------------+--------------------+-------------+------------+
| Continent     | Name               | SurfaceArea | Population |
+---------------+--------------------+-------------+------------+
| Asia          | China              |  9572900.00 | 1277558000 |
| Europe        | Russian Federation | 17075400.00 |  146934000 |
| North America | Canada             |  9970610.00 |   31147000 |
| Africa        | Sudan              |  2505813.00 |   29490000 |
| Oceania       | Australia          |  7741220.00 |   18886000 |
| Antarctica    | Antarctica         | 13120000.00 |          0 |
| South America | Brazil             |  8547403.00 |  170115000 |
+---------------+--------------------+-------------+------------+

Step 4: top n records

It’s time to use string walking. Examples for string walking (described in the excellent SQL Cookbook) can be found here, here and here. We’ll be using a numbers table: a simple table which lists ascending integer numbers. For example, you can use the following:

DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `tinyint_asc`;

CREATE TABLE `tinyint_asc` (
 `value` tinyint(3) unsigned NOT NULL default '0',
 PRIMARY KEY (value)
) ;

INSERT INTO `tinyint_asc` VALUES (0),(1),(2),(3),(4),(5),(6),(7),(8),(9),(10),(11),(12),(13),(14),(15),(16),(17),(18),(19),(20),(21),(22),(23),(24),(25),(26),(27),(28),(29),(30),(31),(32),(33),(34),(35),(36),(37),(38),(39),(40),(41),(42),(43),(44),(45),(46),(47),(48),(49),(50),(51),(52),(53),(54),(55),(56),(57),(58),(59),(60),(61),(62),(63),(64),(65),(66),(67),(68),(69),(70),(71),(72),(73),(74),(75),(76),(77),(78),(79),(80),(81),(82),(83),(84),(85),(86),(87),(88),(89),(90),(91),(92),(93),(94),(95),(96),(97),(98),(99),(100),(101),(102),(103),(104),(105),(106),(107),(108),(109),(110),(111),(112),(113),(114),(115),(116),(117),(118),(119),(120),(121),(122),(123),(124),(125),(126),(127),(128),(129),(130),(131),(132),(133),(134),(135),(136),(137),(138),(139),(140),(141),(142),(143),(144),(145),(146),(147),(148),(149),(150),(151),(152),(153),(154),(155),(156),(157),(158),(159),(160),(161),(162),(163),(164),(165),(166),(167),(168),(169),(170),(171),(172),(173),(174),(175),(176),(177),(178),(179),(180),(181),(182),(183),(184),(185),(186),(187),(188),(189),(190),(191),(192),(193),(194),(195),(196),(197),(198),(199),(200),(201),(202),(203),(204),(205),(206),(207),(208),(209),(210),(211),(212),(213),(214),(215),(216),(217),(218),(219),(220),(221),(222),(223),(224),(225),(226),(227),(228),(229),(230),(231),(232),(233),(234),(235),(236),(237),(238),(239),(240),(241),(242),(243),(244),(245),(246),(247),(248),(249),(250),(251),(252),(253),(254),(255);

The trick is to apply the same technique as used above, not for a single row, but for several rows. Here’s how to present the top 5 countries:

SELECT
  Continent,
  SUBSTRING_INDEX(
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(
      GROUP_CONCAT(Name ORDER BY SurfaceArea DESC),
      ',', value),
    ',', -1)
    AS Name,
  CAST(
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(
      SUBSTRING_INDEX(
        GROUP_CONCAT(SurfaceArea ORDER BY SurfaceArea DESC),
        ',', value),
      ',', -1)
    AS DECIMAL(20,2)
    ) AS SurfaceArea,
  CAST(
    SUBSTRING_INDEX(
      SUBSTRING_INDEX(
        GROUP_CONCAT(Population ORDER BY SurfaceArea DESC),
        ',', value),
      ',', -1)
    AS UNSIGNED
    ) AS Population
FROM
  Country, tinyint_asc
WHERE
  tinyint_asc.value >= 1 AND tinyint_asc.value <= 5
GROUP BY
  Continent, value
;
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+-------------+------------+
| Continent     | Name                                         | SurfaceArea | Population |
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+-------------+------------+
| Asia          | China                                        |  9572900.00 | 1277558000 |
| Asia          | India                                        |  3287263.00 | 1013662000 |
| Asia          | Kazakstan                                    |  2724900.00 |   16223000 |
| Asia          | Saudi Arabia                                 |  2149690.00 |   21607000 |
| Asia          | Indonesia                                    |  1904569.00 |  212107000 |
| Europe        | Russian Federation                           | 17075400.00 |  146934000 |
| Europe        | Ukraine                                      |   603700.00 |   50456000 |
| Europe        | France                                       |   551500.00 |   59225700 |
| Europe        | Spain                                        |   505992.00 |   39441700 |
| Europe        | Sweden                                       |   449964.00 |    8861400 |
| North America | Canada                                       |  9970610.00 |   31147000 |
| North America | United States                                |  9363520.00 |  278357000 |
| North America | Greenland                                    |  2166090.00 |      56000 |
| North America | Mexico                                       |  1958201.00 |   98881000 |
| North America | Nicaragua                                    |   130000.00 |    5074000 |
| Africa        | Sudan                                        |  2505813.00 |   29490000 |
| Africa        | Algeria                                      |  2381741.00 |   31471000 |
| Africa        | Congo                                        |  2344858.00 |   51654000 |
| Africa        |  The Democratic Republic of the              |  1759540.00 |    5605000 |
| Africa        | Libyan Arab Jamahiriya                       |  1284000.00 |    7651000 |
| Oceania       | Australia                                    |  7741220.00 |   18886000 |
| Oceania       | Papua New Guinea                             |   462840.00 |    4807000 |
| Oceania       | New Zealand                                  |   270534.00 |    3862000 |
| Oceania       | Solomon Islands                              |    28896.00 |     444000 |
| Oceania       | New Caledonia                                |    18575.00 |     214000 |
| Antarctica    | Antarctica                                   | 13120000.00 |          0 |
| Antarctica    | French Southern territories                  |     7780.00 |          0 |
| Antarctica    | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands |     3903.00 |          0 |
| Antarctica    | Heard Island and McDonald Islands            |      359.00 |          0 |
| Antarctica    | Bouvet Island                                |       59.00 |          0 |
| South America | Brazil                                       |  8547403.00 |  170115000 |
| South America | Argentina                                    |  2780400.00 |   37032000 |
| South America | Peru                                         |  1285216.00 |   25662000 |
| South America | Colombia                                     |  1138914.00 |   42321000 |
| South America | Bolivia                                      |  1098581.00 |    8329000 |
+---------------+----------------------------------------------+-------------+------------+

Limitations

You should have:

  • Enough numbers in the numbers table (I’ve used 5 out of 255)
  • Reasonable setting for group_concat_max_len (see this post). Actually it would be better to have a smaller value here, while you make sure it’s large enough; this way you do not waste memory for large groups.

(*) This was two years ago! I’m getting old

Update: see also

Another hack at same problem: SQL: selecting top N records per group, another solution

27 thoughts on “SQL: selecting top N records per group”

  1. @Erich,

    Yes, the use of commas assume no commas in values; I also sometimes use char(0) or char(9) which nobody uses within texts

  2. Pingback: Limit each group in group by | BlogoSfera

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