Mysql – How to find an entry from filtering with two associated tables

eavMySQL

This questions has spinned off of another question I probably did not ask correctly from the get go.

I have some tables, where attributes and attributes_entries that hold a pair of dynamic values for products.

The user table (just used as an example):

id     name       whatever
22     thanos     big guy

The products table:

id   code    price
659  0H040   99.99
660  0H040   99.99

The attributes table:

id   title           model      model_id
1    nickname        products   659
2    manufacturer    products   659
3    rhod            products   660
4    manufacturer    products   null
5    age             user       null
6    age             user       22

The attribute_entries table:

id     title      FK_attribute_id
1      windstar   1
2      ford       2
3      75.3       3

I have to find the product that matches the attributes and attribue_entries a user is looking for.

So, if the search filter is manufacturer=ford&nickname=windstar and these are found for product 659 then provide in data set.

How would I go about doing this? I have a fiddle with queries from my previous question but I can't seem to get the proper results.

The desired result is something along the lines of:

attr_title      attr_entry_title    attr_model      attr_model_id
nickname        windstar            products        659
manufacturer    ford                products        659

But what I really need is to get the product id that simply has a match of both these value pairs manufacturer=ford&nickname=windstar.

Since I do not have a FK association to products, I think this is going to be a problem. I didn't associate the products because some attributes are entered globally under a model like products or users, so when someone enters a product or user they can see a dynamic input under attributes called manufacturer, and can enter a value for this to associate it to the model (ex.products).

I think I'm going to have to redo this structure since a reverse lookup of attributes and attribute_entries I have no idea how to find its model id value that has no association.

Best Answer

Is this what you're looking for?

select
    a.title as 'attr_title',
    ae.title as 'attr_entry_title',
    a.model as 'attr_model',
    p.id as 'attr_model_id'

from
    products p
inner join
    attributes a on a.model_id = p.id
inner join
    attribute_entries ae on ae.FK_attribute_id = a.id
where
    ae.title in('ford','windstar')

You might be able to modify the where clause like this to exclude unselected terms:

ae.title not in (select title from attribute_entries where title not in ('ford', 'windstar')

Related Solutions

Sql-server – Efficient query for an advanced EAV model

First of all, what you are about to design is probably a VERY bad idea. A much better solution would be to have a dynamic schema where you add new tables and have the application understand how to query those table (you could place them in a schema). This largely avoids all the locking and query plan issues you are bound to run into with this model. There is nothing wrong with applications running CREATE TABLE now and again.

Second, I am not sure I understand why you have normalised Parameter into its own table? Why not put that directly into the ManufacturerParameter table.

Third, if you insist on proceeding with your current model, there are ways to achieve what you want (at least if I am interpreting your requirement correctly). What you can do is to write your query in such a way that it is a sums up the search argument when there is a match and then use HAVING to filter out the values that match. I am assuming that only one of the fields Text, Boolean, Datum etc are populated per ProductParameter record (you probably want to enforce this with a constraint)

For example, to search for all products that have a bolean = true for one parameter AND text = 'abc' for some other parameter you can do:

SELECT P.Name
FROM Product P
JOIN ProductParameter PP
WHERE P.ID = Foo
  AND PP.Boolean = 1 OR PP.Text = 'abc'  ... /* For each filter */
GROUP BY P.Name /* And any other things you want out of product */
HAVING COUNT(*) >= [Number of where clauses]

If you need to list all the parameters of this product, you can use the above query template as a nested query and join back to ProductParameter.

The above query CAN be optimised by maintaining a computed column in ProductParameter that has a string representation of the different data types in that table. That way, the above OR statements can be rewritten as an IN list (which you will want to pass as a table valued parameter).

I would like to repeat that what you are doing is probably very wrong. If you do it, you will most likely need to hand tune most of your query plans - the optimiser will not help you anymore. And that is assuming you don't have too many query variants, which will run your plan cache full.

Mysql – How to simulate a table join on itself

You'll need to first create a list of every product_number and date combination. You can do this using a CROSS JOIN of your table:

select distinct p.product_number, d.date
from yourtable p
cross join yourtable d;

See SQL Fiddle with Demo. This will create a list of data similar to:

| PRODUCT_NUMBER |                            DATE |
|----------------|---------------------------------|
|            100 |  January, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |
|            200 |  January, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |
|            100 | February, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |

You will then use the above query and LEFT JOIN to your table to return the final result:

select 
  pd.product_number,
  pd.date,
  t.value
from
(
  -- list of every product/date
  select distinct p.product_number, d.date
  from yourtable p
  cross join yourtable d
) pd
left join yourtable t
  on pd.date = t.date
  and pd.product_number = t.product_number
order by pd.product_number, pd.date;

See SQL Fiddle with Demo. Giving a final result of:

| PRODUCT_NUMBER |                            DATE |  VALUE |
|----------------|---------------------------------|--------|
|            100 |  January, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |      1 |
|            100 | February, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |      1 |
|            100 |    March, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |      1 |
|            200 |  January, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |      1 |
|            200 | February, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 | (null) |
|            200 |    March, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |      1 |

The LEFT JOIN returns all rows from your list of products and dates regardless of whether a matching row exists in the other table.

This could also be written as:

select 
  p.product_number,
  d.date,
  t.value
from
(
  -- list of every product
  select distinct product_number
  from yourtable 
) p  
cross join
( 
  -- list of every date
  select distinct date
  from yourtable 
) d
  -- then join to the table
left join yourtable t
  on  d.date = t.date
  and p.product_number = t.product_number
order by p.product_number, d.date ;

See SQL Fiddle with Demo. This may have better performance depending on your table size.

Now if you wanted to return a list of all dates, regardless of whether or not they appear in the table, then I would suggest creating a table of dates. This table would be used in a similar manner to create a list of all dates/products which you would then join.

The table would be similar to:

CREATE TABLE dates
    (`date` datetime)
;

INSERT INTO dates
    (`date`)
VALUES
    ('2010-01-01 00:00:00'),
    ('2010-02-01 00:00:00'),
    ('2010-03-01 00:00:00'),
    ('2010-04-01 00:00:00'),
    ('2010-05-01 00:00:00')
;

You'd then use the following query to get the list of dates/products:

select distinct p.product_number, d.date
from yourtable p
cross join dates d

And finally, you would join that back to your table:

select 
  pd.product_number,
  pd.date,
  t.value
from
(
  -- list of every product/date
  select distinct p.product_number, d.date
  from yourtable p
  cross join dates d
) pd
left join yourtable t
  on pd.date = t.date
  and pd.product_number = t.product_number
order by pd.product_number, pd.date;

See SQL Fiddle with Demo. Or an alternative:

select 
  p.product_number,
  d.date,
  t.value
from
(
  -- list of every product
  select distinct product_number
  from yourtable 
) p  
cross join
 dates
  d
  -- then join to the table
left join yourtable t
  on  d.date = t.date
  and p.product_number = t.product_number
order by p.product_number, d.date ;

See SQL Fiddle with Demo. Again this may have better performance based on the table size. Using this type of solution, you'd return all dates even those not in your table:

| PRODUCT_NUMBER |                            DATE |  VALUE |
|----------------|---------------------------------|--------|
|            100 |  January, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |      1 |
|            100 | February, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |      1 |
|            100 |    March, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |      1 |
|            100 |    April, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 | (null) |
|            100 |      May, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 | (null) |
|            200 |  January, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |      1 |
|            200 | February, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 | (null) |
|            200 |    March, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 |      1 |
|            200 |    April, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 | (null) |
|            200 |      May, 01 2010 00:00:00+0000 | (null) |

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Sql-server – Efficient query for an advanced EAV model

Mysql – How to simulate a table join on itself

Related Question