What is the SQL for 'next' and 'previous' in a table?

Question

I have a table of items, each of which has a date associated with it. If I have the date associated with one item, how do I query the database with SQL to get the \'previous

Answer 1

My own attempt at the set solution, based on TheSoftwareJedi.

First question:

select date from test where date = 8
union all
select max(date) from test where date < 8
union all
select min(date) from test where date > 8
order by date;

Second question:

While debugging this, I used the data set:

(key:date) 1:1,2:3,3:8,4:8,5:19,10:19,11:67,15:45,16:8,17:3,18:1

to give this result:

select * from test2 where date = 8
union all
select * from (select * from test2
                   where date = (select max(date) from test2 
                                     where date < 8)) 
    where key = (select max(key) from test2 
                    where date = (select max(date) from test2 
                                      where date < 8))
union all
select * from (select * from test2
                   where date = (select min(date) from test2 
                                     where date > 8)) 
    where key = (select min(key) from test2 
                    where date = (select min(date) from test2 
                                      where date > 8))
order by date,key;

In both cases the final order by clause is strictly speaking optional.