MySQL LIMIT in a Correllated Subquery

Question

I have a correlated subquery that will return a list of quantities, but I need the highest quantity, and only the highest. So I tried to introduce an order by and a LIMIT of 1 to achieve this, but MySQL throws an error stating it doesn't yet support limits in subqueries. Any thoughts on how to work around this?

SELECT Product.Name, ProductOption.Name, a.Qty, a.Price, SheetSize.UpgradeCost,
        FinishType.Name, FinishOption.Name, FinishTierPrice.Qty, FinishTierPrice.Price
FROM `Product`
    JOIN `ProductOption`
        ON Product.idProduct = ProductOption.Product_idProduct
    JOIN `ProductOptionTier` AS a
        ON a.ProductOption_idProductOption = ProductOption.idProductOption
    JOIN `PaperSize`
        ON PaperSize.idPaperSize = ProductOption.PaperSize_idPaperSize
    JOIN `SheetSize`
        ON SheetSize.PaperSize_idPaperSize = PaperSize.idPaperSize
    JOIN `FinishOption`
        ON FinishOption.Product_idProduct = Product.idProduct
    JOIN `FinishType`
        ON FinishType.idFinishType = FinishOption.Finishtype_idFinishType
    JOIN `FinishTierPrice`
        ON FinishTierPrice.FinishOption_idFinishOption = FinishOption.idFinishOption
WHERE Product.idProduct = 1
    AND FinishTierPrice.idFinishTierPrice IN (SELECT FinishTierPrice.idFinishTierPrice
                                              FROM `FinishTierPrice` 
                                              WHERE FinishTierPrice.Qty <= a.Qty
                                              ORDER BY a.Qty DESC
                                              LIMIT 1)

Answer 1

This is a variation of the greatest-n-per-group problem that comes up frequently.

You want the single row form FinishTierPrice (call it p1), matching the FinishOption and with the greatest Qty, but still less than or equal to the Qty of the ProductOptionTier.

One way to do this is to try to match a second row (p2) from FinishTierPrice that would have the same FinishOption and a greater Qty. If no such row exists (use an outer join and test that it's NULL), then the row found by p1 is the greatest.

SELECT Product.Name, ProductOption.Name, a.Qty, a.Price, SheetSize.UpgradeCost,
        FinishType.Name, FinishOption.Name, FinishTierPrice.Qty, FinishTierPrice.Price
FROM `Product`
    JOIN `ProductOption`
        ON Product.idProduct = ProductOption.Product_idProduct
    JOIN `ProductOptionTier` AS a
        ON a.ProductOption_idProductOption = ProductOption.idProductOption
    JOIN `PaperSize`
        ON PaperSize.idPaperSize = ProductOption.PaperSize_idPaperSize
    JOIN `SheetSize`
        ON SheetSize.PaperSize_idPaperSize = PaperSize.idPaperSize
    JOIN `FinishOption`
        ON FinishOption.Product_idProduct = Product.idProduct
    JOIN `FinishType`
        ON FinishType.idFinishType = FinishOption.Finishtype_idFinishType
    JOIN `FinishTierPrice` AS p1
        ON p1.FinishOption_idFinishOption = FinishOption.idFinishOption
        AND p1.Qty <= a.Qty
    LEFT OUTER JOIN `FinishTierPrice` AS p2
        ON p2.FinishOption_idFinishOption = FinishOption.idFinishOption
        AND p2.Qty <= a.Qty AND (p2.Qty > p1.Qty OR p2.Qty = p1.Qty 
            AND p2.idFinishTierPrice > p1.idFinishTierPrice)
WHERE Product.idProduct = 1
    AND p2.idFinishTierPrice IS NULL