Question

I have the following query, which generally works, and is supposed to return all rows covering the define timeframe (taking the closest prior and next rows if no absolut match – outlined at http://www.orafaq.com/node/1834)

SELECT * FROM table
  WHERE id=__ID__ AND `date` BETWEEN 
    IFNULL((SELECT MAX(`date`) FROM table WHERE id=__ID__ AND `date`<=__LOWERLIMIT__), 0)
  AND
    IFNULL((SELECT MIN(`date`) FROM table WHERE id=__ID__ AND `date`>=__UPPERLIMIT__), UNIX_TIMESTAMP())
ORDER BY `date`

but was hoping to reduce the two table subselects by referencing to the outer select, but obviously it doesnt like it

SELECT * FROM (SELECT * FROM table WHERE id=__ID__) b
  WHERE `date` BETWEEN 
    IFNULL((SELECT MAX(`date`) FROM b WHERE `date`<=__LOWERLIMIT__), 0)
  AND
    IFNULL((SELECT MIN(`date`) FROM b WHERE `date`>=__UPPERLIMIT__), UNIX_TIMESTAMP())
ORDER BY `date`

Is there a way to have the query without the three table selects?

Answer 1

You can do something like this with a join:

select * from table a
    inner join (
       select id,
              max(
                  if(`date` <= __LOWERLIMIT__ ,`date`, 0)
              ) as min_date,              
              min(
                 if(`date` >= __UPPERLIMIT__ , `date`, UNIX_TIMESTAMP())
              ) as max_date
           from table
           where id = __ID__
           group by id
    ) range on
    range.id = a.id and
    a.`date` between min_date and max_date;

I’m not a MySQL expert, so apologies if a bit of syntax tweaking is needed.

Update: the OP also found this very nice solution.