As a developer, working with asynchronous code often means dealing with out-of-order timestamps. To report on such data, we need to validate the created date-time. Here, we will explore SQL parts beyond the SELECT
statement, focusing on variables and the HAVING
clause.
SELECT @a := 0;
SELECT invited, `date`, `date` - @a AS gap, @a := `date`
FROM INVOICES AS i
HAVING gap < 0
SQL Variables
SQL variables are used to store temporary data. They are particularly useful in complex queries where intermediate results need to be stored and reused.
SELECT @a := 0;
@a
is a user-defined variable.:=
is the assignment operator.0
is the initial value assigned to@a
.
Using Variables in Queries
Variables can be used within queries to perform calculations or store intermediate results.
SELECT invited, `date`, `date` - @a AS gap, @a := `date`
FROM INVOICES AS i
HAVING gap < 0;
invited
anddate
are columns from theINVOICES
table.date - @a AS gap
calculates the difference between the currentdate
and the value stored in@a
, aliasing it asgap
.@a := date
updates the variable@a
with the currentdate
value for the next row.
The HAVING Clause
The HAVING
clause is used to filter results based on aggregate functions or calculated columns, similar to the WHERE
clause but applied after the GROUP BY
clause.
HAVING gap < 0;
- This filters the results to include only rows where the
gap
is less than 0, indicating an out-of-order timestamp.
Full Query Explanation
- Initialize Variable:
Initializes the variableSELECT @a := 0;
@a
to 0. - Query with Variable:
SELECT invited, `date`, `date` - @a AS gap, @a := `date` FROM INVOICES AS i HAVING gap < 0;
- Selects
invited
anddate
from theINVOICES
table. - Calculates the
gap
between the currentdate
and the previousdate
stored in@a
. - Updates
@a
with the currentdate
. - Filters rows where
gap
is less than 0.
- Selects