Is there a way to rank values in MySql according to what column they belong to?

Question

Okay, so lets say that we have 4 columns and 3 rows of data.

|user_id|pick_1|pick_2|pick_3|
-------------------------------
|fred   |C++   |java  | php  |
------------------------------
|eric   |java  |C++   | php   |
------------------------------
|sam    | C++  | php  | java |
------------------------------

So right now, users are entering their favorite languages. The first pick(pick_1) would be the favorite programming language and the second pick (pick_2) would be the 2nd favorite programming language and etc.

How can I organize this in a way so that I can give a point value according to what columns the programming languages are. So maybe pick_1 can give 3 points, pick_2 can give 2 points and pick_3 can give 1 point.

So when you tally up the scores, C++ will have 8 points, java will have 6 points, and php will have 4 points.

That way I can give an overall ranking of what tends to be the more favorable programming language. Like so

  |rank|language|points|
  ----------------------
  |  1 |  C++   | 8    |
  ----------------------
  |  2 |  java  | 6    |
  ----------------------
  |  3 |  php   | 4    |
  ----------------------

It doesn't even need to have a point system, I just couldn't think of another way to rank the languages on a scale of liked to un-liked. So if there's another way to yield the same results than please let me know. Otherwise how would I be able to do this. Preferably in just MySql. I am currently using PHP.

Thank you for reading.

Answer 1

for a SQL only solution, I would normalize your structure, and put the picks in a different table:

users: user_id; user_name
picks: pick_id; user_id; language; points;

then you would have your data in 2 tables:

| user_id | user_name |
-----------------------
| 1       | Fred      |
-----------------------
| 2       | Eric      |
-----------------------
| 3       | Sam       |
-----------------------

| pick_id | user_id   | language | points    |
---------------------------------------------
| 1       | 1         | C++      | 1         |
---------------------------------------------
| 2       | 1         | Java     | 2         |
---------------------------------------------
| 3       | 1         | php      | 3         |
---------------------------------------------
| 4       | 2         | Java     | 1         |
---------------------------------------------
| 5       | 2         | C++      | 2         |
---------------------------------------------
| 6       | 2         | php      | 3         |
---------------------------------------------
| 7       | 3         | C++      | 1         |
---------------------------------------------
| 8       | 3         | Java     | 2         |
---------------------------------------------
| 9       | 3         | php      | 3         |
---------------------------------------------

And then use the following query to fetch the desired result:

SELECT language, SUM(points) FROM users JOIN picks ON users.user_id=picks.user_id GROUP BY language

As seen in this fiddle

This way it's also easy to add constraints so people can not vote for a language more then once, or give the same amount of votes to 2 different languages.

Answer 2

You need a simpler structure

User_ID | Pick | Points
Fred      c++     3
Fred      php     2
Fred      java    1

This way you can do a simple sum(points) group by pick