mySQL Returning the top 5 of each category

Question

I want to be able to return 5 menuitem per menu. I\'ve tried this several script but had no luck. here are the tables

menus
-------
menuid int()
profileName          


        

Answer 1

You have to use side effecting variables for this

SELECT profilename, name
FROM
(
    SELECT m.profilename, s.name,
        @r:=case when @g=m.profilename then @r+1 else 1 end r,
        @g:=m.profilename
    FROM (select @g:=null,@r:=0) n
    cross join menus m 
    left join menuitems s on m.menuid = s.menuid
) X
WHERE r <= 5