Question

Is it possible to put GROUP_CONCAT in a MYSQL WHERE clause?

I have two tables (one for members and one for payment info). For example

Members Table

num, memNumber, fullName, coporateName, surname
001, mem0010, Joe Bloggs, NULL, Bloggs
002, mem0015, NULL, BBC
003, mem0017, John Peters, NULL
004, mem0101, Emma Jane, NULL

Payment Table

num, memberID, subscriptionYear, amount
001, mem0010, 2008, 30
003, mem0010, 2010, 40
004, mem0015, 2010, 40
005, mem0017, 2009, 35
006, mem0101, 2009, 35
007, mem0017, 2010, 40

I have the following query to retrieve info from both tables (I have simplified it to make it more readable).

SELECT members.num, members.memNumber , members.fullName , members.corporateName ,
       CONCAT(members.corporateName , members.surname) AS searchSurname ,
       GROUP_CONCAT(payment.subscriptionYear) As subscriptionYear ,
       GROUP_CONCAT(payment.amount) AS amount    
FROM members 
LEFT JOIN payment ON members.memNumber = payment.memberID    
WHERE `subscriptionYear` NOT LIKE '%2009%'    
GROUP BY members.num    
ORDER BY `searchSurname` ASC

But it removes the “2009” from the results of the subscriptionYear column. Can’t see if 2009 is in the resultant GROUP_CONCAT?

Answer 1

WHERE happens BEFORE the grouping, you want to use HAVING, which happens after the grouping.