Question

How can I formulate a query for the below task:

Let’s say you are logged in as user:1
I want to get one row per conversations I’ve had.
For each row I want to get, the
“Subject” of the first row within the conversation
“DateTime” of the first row
“Message” last message of this conversation no matter who wrote it

CREATE TABLE messages (
    ID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
    FromID INT NOT NULL,   
    ToID INT NOT NULL,    
    ConversationID INT NOT NULL,    
    Subject varchar(255), 
    Message varchar(255),
    DateTime DATETIME                                       
    ) ENGINE=InnoDB;


CREATE TABLE conversations (
    ID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY                                    
    ) ENGINE=InnoDB;



INSERT INTO conversations (ID) VALUES (1), (2), (3);
INSERT INTO messages (FromID, ToID, ConversationID, Subject, Message, DateTime) VALUES (1,2, 1, "Hi", "This is a test message", "2010-08-08 16:23:48");        
INSERT INTO messages (FromID, ToID, ConversationID, Subject, Message, DateTime) VALUES (1,2, 1, "", "Hey again you have not answered", "2010-08-08 16:23:52");                                                                                                                                               
INSERT INTO messages (FromID, ToID, ConversationID, Subject, Message, DateTime) VALUES (2,1, 1, "", "Hi this is my answer", "2010-08-08 16:23:59");


INSERT INTO messages (FromID, ToID, ConversationID, Subject, Message, DateTime) VALUES (2,1, 2, "2.Hi", "2.This is a test message", "2010-08-08 16:25:48");        
INSERT INTO messages (FromID, ToID, ConversationID, Subject, Message, DateTime) VALUES (1,2, 2, "", "2.Hi back", "2010-08-08 16:25:52");                                                                                                                                               
INSERT INTO messages (FromID, ToID, ConversationID, Subject, Message, DateTime) VALUES (2,1, 2, "", "2.Hi this is my answer", "2010-08-08 16:25:59");


INSERT INTO messages (FromID, ToID, ConversationID, Subject, Message, DateTime) VALUES (2,1, 3, "3.Hi", "3.This is a test message", "2010-08-08 16:27:48");        
INSERT INTO messages (FromID, ToID, ConversationID, Subject, Message, DateTime) VALUES (1,2, 3, "", "2.Hi back", "2010-08-08 16:27:52");   
INSERT INTO messages (FromID, ToID, ConversationID, Subject, Message, DateTime) VALUES (1,2, 3, "", "2.Hello are you there?", "2010-08-08 16:27:59");                                                                                                                                            

Answer 1

SELECT M.ConversationID, 
MAX(CASE WHEN M.DateTime = X.FirstRow THEN M.Subject END) AS Subject,
CAST(COALESCE(MAX(CASE WHEN M.DateTime = X.LastRowSentByOtherUser 
                       THEN M.DateTime END),X.LastRow) AS DateTime)AS LastTime,
MAX(CASE WHEN M.DateTime = X.LastRow THEN M.Message END) AS Message,
MAX(CASE WHEN FromID = 1 THEN ToID ELSE FromID END) AS OtherParticipantId
FROM messages M
JOIN (
    SELECT ConversationID, MIN(DateTime) AS FirstRow, MAX(DateTime) AS LastRow,
    MAX(CASE WHEN FromID<>1 THEN DateTime END) AS LastRowSentByOtherUser
    FROM messages
    WHERE FromID=1 OR ToID=1
    GROUP BY ConversationID
) X ON X.ConversationID = M.ConversationID
AND (M.DateTime IN (X.FirstRow, X.LastRow, X.LastRowSentByOtherUser))
GROUP BY M.ConversationID
HAVING MAX(CASE WHEN M.DateTime = X.LastRowSentByOtherUser 
                   THEN M.DateTime END) IS NOT NULL