Question

This is my database table. How would i be able to select the bottom table from the database table?

Is it possible to create NameID and TypeID from unique names and types?

EDIT—
Ive got the type to work using case, since there are only 3 types.

SELECT 
  name, type, spending, 
    CASE type 
       WHEN 'Credit Card' THEN 1 
       WHEN 'Cash' THEN 2 
       WHEN 'Cheque' THEN 3 
    END AS typeID_  
FROM spendtable

Would it be possible to do the same on the name column?

Thanks!

—-database table—-

Name   Type        
     Spending
John     Credit Card   550
Brian    Cash  
          200
Frank   Cheque  
      600
John     Cash        
    150
John
    Cash             300
Frank   Credit
Card   200

—-table needed —-

NameID   Name   TypeID   Type  
            Spending
1
            John      1           Credit Card
    550
2
            Brian     2
          Cash               200
3             Frank    3           Cheque  
        600
1             John      2           Cash 
             150
1             John      2           Cash  
            300
3             Frank    1           Credit Card     200

——-EDIT

I ended up using 2 queries and php to get the required table

 function getInfo(){   
     SELECT 
       name, type, spending, 
         CASE type 
            WHEN 'Credit Card' THEN 1 
            WHEN 'Cash' THEN 2 
            WHEN 'Cheque' THEN 3 
         END AS typeID_  
     FROM spendtable 
 }

 function getName(){   
       SELECT name    
       FROM spendtable   
       GROUP BY share_ ASC           
 }


$info_array = $this->getInfo(); 
$name_array = $this->getName(); 

 for($i=0; $i<count($info_array); $i++){   
   $info_array[$i]['nameID'] = '';   
     for($j=0; $j<count($name_array); $j++){
     if($info_array[$i]['nameID'] == $name_array[$j]){
       $info_array[$i]['nameID'] = $j;
     }   
   }         
}

Answer 1

I was able to expand your existing query to support the NameID column:

SELECT 
  name, type, spending, 
    CASE type 
       WHEN 'Credit Card' THEN 1 
       WHEN 'Cash' THEN 2 
       WHEN 'Cheque' THEN 3 
    END AS TypeID, 
    CASE name 
       WHEN 'John' THEN 1 
       WHEN 'Brian' THEN 2 
       WHEN 'Frank' THEN 3 
    END AS NameID
FROM spendtable

As a design limitation, people stored in your database are only allowed to be named John, Brian, or Frank 🙂

Getting serious, assuming there are an unknown possible number of names I’m not sure you can (or would want to) do that kind of processing in the query. Instead, consider maintaining a separate Name table for keeping track of unique names:

NameID   Name
1        John
2        Brian
3        Frank

Your query could then join on this table:

SELECT 
  s.name, s.type, s.spending, 
    CASE s.type 
       WHEN 'Credit Card' THEN 1 
       WHEN 'Cash' THEN 2 
       WHEN 'Cheque' THEN 3 
    END AS TypeID, 
    n.nameid
FROM spendtable s
JOIN Name n on n.name = s.name

Of course this would mean you needed to keep the Name table up to date, making sure to insert rows for new names.