Question

I want to get range ranking from a table using mysql query.

the table is like this,

+------------+------+
| first_name | age  |
+------------+------+
| Kathy      |   2  |
| Jane       |   1  |
| Nick       |   3  |
| Bob        |   5  |
| Anne       |   4  |
| Jack       |   6  |
| Bill       |   8  |
| Steve      |   7  |
+------------+------+

and I want to get Jack’s ranking with 2 lower and upper rankers.

+------------+------+
| Anne       |   4  |
| Bob        |   5  |
| Jack       |   6  |
| Steve      |   7  |
| Bill       |   8  |
+------------+------+

Any idea how to write this query for a MySQL database?

Answer 1

Here is a very ugly way to do this by applying a rownumber to the records. By applying the rownumber to the records, then you you will be able to return rows if the ages are not consecutive (Demo with Non-consecutive ages):

select age, first_name
from 
(
  select t1.age, t1.first_name, @rownum:=@rownum+1 AS rownum
  from yourtable t1, (SELECT @rownum:=0) r
  order by t1.age
) x
where rownum  >= (select rownum
                  from 
                  (
                    select t.age, 
                      t.first_name, 
                      @rownum:=@rownum+1 AS rownum
                    from yourtable t, (SELECT @rownum:=0) r
                    order by t.age
                  ) x
                  where first_name = 'jack') - 2
 and rownum  <= (select rownum
                    from 
                    (
                      select t.age, 
                        t.first_name, 
                        @rownum:=@rownum+1 AS rownum
                      from yourtable t, (SELECT @rownum:=0) r
                      order by t.age
                    ) x
                    where first_name = 'jack') + 2;

see SQL Fiddle with Demo