Ranking by Group in MySQL

Question

I have a table with one column as follows:

name
-------
Michael
Michael
Michael
Michael
John
John
John
Alex
Alex

I need to rank them to giv

Answer 1

There's nothing in mysql that lets you do this directly, but you can hack it in:

SET @prev := null;

SET @cnt := 1;

SELECT name, IF(@prev <> name, @cnt := 1, @cnt := @cnt + 1) AS rank, @prev := name
FROM yourtable
ORDER BY name

This sort of thing is easier done in your client app, using the same basic logic.