Question

We are now doing embedded mysql queries for a small local website. I am wondering how I might do this query “Ask the user for a price and find the PC whose price is closest to the desired price. Print the maker, model number, and speed of the PC.”

How might I find the pc with the price closest to the entered price from the user?
I know I need to do a natural join between product and pc, something along these lines

SELECT maker, model, speed FROM 
(SELECT * FROM product NATURAL JOIN pc) AS t1 
WHERE price (is close to) '$p';

Relations:

product(maker, model, type(pc, printer, laptop))
pc(model, price, speed, ram, hd size)

Answer 1

Create an offset variable by taking the price and subtracting the inputed price. Make this an absolute (no negatives) then order by this and limit

SELECT product.maker, pc.model, pc.speed, ABS(pc.price - '$p') AS offset FROM pc LEFT JOIN product ON pc.model=product.model ORDER BY offset ASC LIMIT 1