Question

I have some kind of impossible request :).

I have a table where one of the columns is named type. I would like to SELECT 3 records for each type in that column. Is that possible?

Note also that I’m using MySQL and Sphinx.

UPDATE:
Table structure

id       title        type
1        AAAA         string1
2        CCCC         string2
3        EEEE         string2
4        DDDD         string2
5        FFFF         string2
6        BBBB         string2
6        BBBB         string2

What I want my MySQL to return is (up to 3 records for each type ordered by title):

id       title        type
1        AAAA         string1
6        BBBB         string2
2        CCCC         string2
4        DDDD         string2

Answer 1

select id, title, type
from   (select id, title, type,
               @num := if(@group = type, @num + 1, 1) as row_number,
               @group := type as dummy
        from   your_table
        order by type, title) as x
where  row_number <= 3

(Uses a different article on the same site as Martin Wickman’s answer!)