I have a query which selects a show from anime_series
, then selects corresponding information from other tables (such as studio, which is stored as a SMALLINT reference to another table). The below query works as intended, but I really don't believe my code is as efficient as it can or should be.
The real complexity is that shows can and often do have multiple genres and studios. I'm current using GROUP_CONCAT
on the multiple genres, studio names, and studio links, though I'm not sure this is the best method. I'm using a sub query for the next episode because I only need the first episode that hasn't aired, again, my method is probably over-complicating it.
SELECT
anime.*,
episode.number AS episode,
episode.air_date AS ep_airdate,
station.name AS station_name,
station.link AS station_link,
GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT genre.name ORDER BY LOWER(genre.name)) AS genres,
GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT studio.name) AS studio_names,
GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT studio.link) AS studio_links
FROM
`anime_series` AS anime
LEFT JOIN (
SELECT
`air_date`,
`series`,
`number`
FROM
`anime_episodes`
WHERE
`air_date` > NOW()
GROUP BY `series`) episode
ON anime.id = episode.series
LEFT JOIN `anime_stations` station
ON anime.station = station.id
LEFT JOIN `anime_genre_connections`
ON anime_genre_connections.series_id = anime.id
JOIN `anime_genres` AS genre
ON anime_genre_connections.genre_id = genre.id
LEFT JOIN `anime_studio_connections`
ON anime_studio_connections.series = anime.id
JOIN `anime_studios` AS studio
ON anime_studio_connections.studio = studio.id
WHERE anime.id = 1
GROUP BY anime.id;
Here's some table examples (anime_series missing irrelevant columns):
anime_series
id | station
1 | 1
anime_stations
id | name | link
1 | Something TV | http://example.com
anime_episodes
id | series | air_date | number
1 | 1 | 2013-07-09 01:00:00 | 1
2 | 1 | 2013-07-16 01:00:00 | 2
anime_genre_connections
id | series_id | genre_id
1 | 1 | 1
2 | 1 | 2
anime_genres
id | name
1 | Comedy
2 | Action
anime_studio_connections
id | series | studio
1 | 1 | 1
2 | 1 | 2
anime_studios
id | name | link
1 | Example | http://example.com
2 | Some Studio | http://example.com
EDIT: I should also add that I'm splitting the returned columns genres, studio_names, and studio_links into arrays after the query has executed.