Question

I have done this the long and hard way but I know it can be done quicker and easier 😉

If I have a column called ‘puzzle_level’ I wish to have 10 points for each record that is puzzle_level=5, 25 points for each record where puzzle_level=6 and 50 points if puzzle_level=7;

Quick edit, I actually need a varialbe total in PHP, so it would be $total_points = $sql_formula

Answer 1

You can simply do it with a conditional CASE expression:

SELECT 
    points + 
    CASE puzzle_level 
        WHEN 5 THEN 10 
        WHEN 6 THEN 25 
        WHEN 7 THEN 50 
    END AS totalpoints
FROM your_table

This adds an amount of points based on the puzzle_level to the total point amount in the points column.

Then, simply reference the 'totalpoints' column in PHP.