Question

I am implementing a Popular feature into my app where I will select the most popular posts from a database. Problem is I need to get the most popular in terms of most likes and most comments. I just tried:

SELECT * FROM db ORDER BY `likesCount`,`commentsCount` DESC LIMIT $from," . ($to-$from)

But that will show an ascending value in terms of the numberOfLikes. How can I get it so that it measures the numberOfLikes and numberOfComments and selects the most popular one?

Answer 1

You can specify whether you want to sort in ascending or descending order for each search field.

SELECT * FROM `db` ORDER BY `likesCount` DESC, `commentsCount` DESC

With that said, you won’t be able to select the most like and most commented ones at the same time. You’ll have to come up with a formula to figure that out. For instance, the example below find the maximum value for a given “id” between the number of likes and comments:

SELECT * FROM `db` GROUP BY `id` ORDER BY GREATEST(`likesCount`, `commentsCount`) DESC

Another alternative would be to add them together:

SELECT * FROM `db` ORDER BY `likesCount` + `commentsCount` DESC