grabbing first row in a mysql query only

Question

if i had a query such as

select * from tbl_foo where name = \'sarmen\'

and this table has multiple instances of name = sarmen how can i vir

Answer 1

You can get the total number of rows containing a specific name using:

SELECT COUNT(*) FROM tbl_foo WHERE name = 'sarmen'

Given the count, you can now get the nth row using:

SELECT * FROM tbl_foo WHERE name = 'sarmen' LIMIT (n - 1), 1

Where 1 <= n <= COUNT(*) from the first query.

Example:

getting the 3rd row

SELECT * FROM tbl_foo WHERE name = 'sarmen' LIMIT 2, 1