SQL : find rows and sort according to number of matching columns?

Question

Let\'s imagine that we are having \"cars\" table with such a simple structure...

car_id INT
color ENUM(\'black\',\'white\',\'blue\')
weight ENUM(\'light\',\'         


        

Answer 1

There are probably a few ways to optimise the sub-queries, but without using case statements or sub-optimal join clauses:

select
        *
    from
        (
            select
                    selection.CarId,
                    selection.Colour,
                    selection.Weight,
                    selection.Type,
                    3 as Relevance
                from
                    tblCars as selection
                where
                    selection.Colour = 'black' and selection.Weight = 'light' and selection.Type = 'van'
            union all
            select
                    cars.CarId,
                    cars.Colour,
                    cars.Weight,
                    cars.Type,
                    count(*) as Relevance
                from
                    tblCars as cars
                inner join
                    (
                        select
                                byColour.CarId
                            from
                                tblCars as cars
                            inner join
                                tblCars as byColour
                            on
                                cars.Colour = byColour.Colour
                            where
                                cars.Colour = 'black' and cars.Weight = 'light' and cars.Type = 'van'
                                and
                                byColour.CarId <> cars.CarId
                        union all
                        select
                                byWeight.CarId
                            from
                                tblCars as cars
                            inner join
                                tblCars as byWeight
                            on
                                cars.Weight = byWeight.Weight
                            where
                                cars.Colour = 'black' and cars.Weight = 'light' and cars.Type = 'van'
                                and
                                byWeight.CarId <> cars.CarId
                        union all
                        select
                                byType.CarId
                            from
                                tblCars as cars
                            inner join
                                tblCars as byType
                            on
                                cars.Type = byType.Type
                            where
                                cars.Colour = 'black' and cars.Weight = 'light' and cars.Type = 'van'
                                and
                                byType.CarId <> cars.CarId
                    ) as matches
                on
                    cars.CarId = matches.CarId
                group by
                    cars.CarId,
                    cars.Colour,
                    cars.Weight,
                    cars.Type
        ) as results
    order by
        Relevance desc

Output:

CarId   Colour  Weight  Type    Relevance
1       black   light   van     3
3       white   light   van     2
4       blue    light   van     2
5       black   medium  van     2
6       white   medium  van     1
7       blue    medium  van     1
8       black   heavy   limo    1