Select 5 most recent items from some categories

Ever needed to build a list which "sub-selects", say, 5 items from a given list of categories? This snippet should help.

Assume the following schema…

CREATE TABLE content (
  id INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  title VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  body LONGTEXT NOT NULL,
  status INT(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
  created INT(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
  PRIMARY KEY (id),
  KEY content_created (created)
);

CREATE TABLE tags(
  id INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  title VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE content_tags (
  tid INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
  cid INT(10) UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (tid, cid),
  KEY content_id (cid)
);

Now we can insert some dummy data…

TRUNCATE content;
INSERT INTO content (title, STATUS, created) VALUES
  ('Ut Secundum Modo',             1, UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2011-09-12 12:00:00')),
  ('Quidem Accumsan Facilisis',    1, UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2011-09-14 17:00:00')),
  ('Vel Ut Oppeto Interdico ',     1, UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2011-09-10 09:00:00')),
  ('Iustum Nimis Venio',           1, UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2011-09-11 12:30:00')),
  ('Consequat Defui Verto Macto',  1, UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2011-09-13 19:00:00')),
  ('Quae Natu Facilisis Ille Jus', 1, UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2011-09-09 21:15:00')),
  ('Abico Meus Ullamcorper',       0, UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2011-09-01 00:00:00')),
  ('Ulciscor Antehabeo Gravis',    1, UNIX_TIMESTAMP('2011-09-05 11:00:00'));

TRUNCATE tags;  
INSERT INTO tags (title) VALUES ('alpha'), ('beta'), ('gamma'), ('delta');

TRUNCATE content_tags;
INSERT INTO  content_tags(tid, cid) VALUES
  (1,1), (4,1),
  (2,2), (3,2), (4,2),
  (1,3), (3,3), (4,3),
  (3,4), (4,4),
  (2,5),
  (3,6), (4,6),
  (1,7), (4,7),
  (1,8);

The TRUNCATE's are only there to ensure these test tables are empty and that the auto incrementing ID's starts from 1.

Now if you run the following query, you will get a list of up to 3 of the most recent posts from each category.

SELECT tag_id, tag_name, content_id, content_title FROM (
  SELECT
    CASE
      WHEN @id != t.id THEN @row_num := 1
      ELSE @row_num := @row_num + 1
    END AS rownum,
    t.id tag_id,
    t.title tag_name,
    c.id content_id,
    c.title content_title,
    @id := t.id
  FROM tags t
  INNER JOIN content_tags ct ON ct.tid = t.id
  INNER JOIN content c ON c.id = ct.cid
  JOIN (SELECT @id := NULL, @row_num := 0) a
  WHERE c.status = 1
  ORDER BY t.id ASC, c.created DESC
) r
WHERE rownum < 4

This produces…

How to use in Drupal

The above example could easily be adapted for a Drupal site; to list the 4 most recent items in all terms in a given vocabulary…

SELECT term_id, term_name, node_id, node_title FROM (
  SELECT
    CASE
      WHEN @id != td.tid THEN @row_num := 1
      ELSE @row_num := @row_num + 1
    END AS rownum,
    td.tid term_id,
    td.name term_name,
    n.nid node_id,
    n.title node_title,
    @id := td.tid
  FROM term_data td
  INNER JOIN term_node tn ON tn.tid = td.tid
  INNER JOIN node n ON n.vid = tn.vid
  JOIN (SELECT @id := NULL, @row_num := 0) a
  WHERE n.status = 1 AND td.vid = 1
  ORDER BY td.tid ASC, n.created DESC
) r
WHERE rownum < 5