mysql - offset problem

Question

I recently posted a question about getting last 3 results in table in the correct order. I now want the get all comments apart from the last 3 in the correct order.

Here is my syntax;

SELECT *
FROM (SELECT * 
      FROM $table 
      ORDER BY ID DESC 
      OFFSET 3) AS T 
ORDER BY TIME_STAMP

The error I am receiving is:

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'OFFSET, 3) AS T ORDER BY TIME_STAMP' at line 1

I can't seem to get it to work. Any help much appreciated.

Answer 1

You can't use OFFSET without a LIMIT.

A little bulky, but that query worked for me, and not worked without an redundant internal subquery (mysql 5.0.90)

select * from $table 
where id not in (
  select id from (
    select id from languages order by id DESC LIMIT 3
  ) l1
) order by time_stamp

Answer 2

According to the MySQL Documentation:

To retrieve all rows from a certain offset up to the end of the result set, you can use some large number for the second parameter. This statement retrieves all rows from the 96th row to the last:

They recommend you use a query such as:

SELECT * FROM tbl LIMIT 95,18446744073709551615;

So in your case, you should try:

SELECT *
FROM (SELECT * 
      FROM $table 
      ORDER BY ID DESC 
      LIMIT 3,18446744073709551615) AS T 
ORDER BY TIME_STAMP

Note that you can also use the PostgreSQL compatible version using the keyword OFFSET:

SELECT *
FROM (SELECT * 
      FROM $table 
      ORDER BY ID DESC 
      LIMIT 18446744073709551615 OFFSET 3) AS T 
ORDER BY TIME_STAMP

Just in case you are wondering, 18446744073709551615 = 2^64 - 1.