MySQL dynamically display distinct values from a column with count of occurrences?

Question

Using MySQL 5.5.34 on MAMP.

How do I display distinct values with count of occurrences ?

my_table looks like this:

id fruit
01 apple
02 orange
03 grape
04 apple
05 banana
06 orange

What i'm trying to display is something like:

apple 2
banana 1
grape 1
orange 2
fruits 6

I could hard code the values and use count with distinct but I'm sure there is a dynamic way. I've found some examples on here using group by and with rollup , but I can't seem to get the syntax right or find a example.

The non-dynamic way I'm doing right now:

SELECT fruit,COUNT(*) as count
FROM my_table
GROUP BY fruit
ORDER BY fruit ASC
WITH ROLLUP;

I hope somebody has some a clear example. I've been trying for many hours now. thanks!

Answer 1

You need to make the rollup row say fruits instead of NULL using the IFNULL() function

You also don't need ORDER BY

PROPOSED QUERY

SELECT IFNULL(fruit,'fruits') fruit,COUNT(*) as count
FROM my_table
GROUP BY fruit
WITH ROLLUP;

SAMPLE DATA

mysql> drop database if exists fruitdb;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> create database fruitdb;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> use fruitdb
Database changed
mysql> create table my_table
    -> (id int not null auto_increment,
    -> fruit varchar(20) not null,
    -> primary key (id));
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> insert into my_table (fruit) values
    -> ('apple'),('orange'),('grape'),
    -> ('apple'),('banana'),('orange');
Query OK, 6 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Records: 6  Duplicates: 0  Warnings: 0

mysql> select * from my_table;
+----+--------+
| id | fruit  |
+----+--------+
|  1 | apple  |
|  2 | orange |
|  3 | grape  |
|  4 | apple  |
|  5 | banana |
|  6 | orange |
+----+--------+
6 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql>

PROPOSED QUERY EXECUTED

mysql> SELECT IFNULL(fruit,'fruits') fruit,COUNT(*) as count
    -> FROM my_table
    -> GROUP BY fruit
    -> WITH ROLLUP;
+--------+-------+
| fruit  | count |
+--------+-------+
| apple  |     2 |
| banana |     1 |
| grape  |     1 |
| orange |     2 |
| fruits |     6 |
+--------+-------+
5 rows in set, 1 warning (0.00 sec)

mysql>

GIVE IT A TRY !!!