Question

Trying to get my head around, If I select a record such as WHERE item_id='$item_id' AND date(datetime)='2012-06-25' and if that record does not exist so I want to get the nearest-latest record after that date. How can I achieve that in a query?

All I can think of the only way right now is if num_of_rows is 0 then I add 3 days period ahead to that day and search again and get the DESC datetime LIMIT 1 (in case there are multiple rows). But who knows I can do it with just a query.

The record could have multiple rows in one day. So if a particular date has no record, how to get the next nearest available data given the same $item_id?

Answer 1

SELECT *
 FROM table
 WHERE field <= '2012-06-25'
 ORDER BY field DESC
 LIMIT 1