来自: http://mdb-blog.blogspot.com/2015/06/mysql-find-median-nth-element-without.html

我建议另一种方法，不用连接， 但是处理字符串

我没有用大数据表来检验， 但是中小型的桌子就可以了。

这里的好处是，它也可以通过GROUPING工作，所以它可以返回几个项目的中值。

下面是测试表的测试代码:

DROP TABLE test.test_median
CREATE TABLE test.test_median AS
SELECT 'book' AS grp, 4 AS val UNION ALL
SELECT 'book', 7 UNION ALL
SELECT 'book', 2 UNION ALL
SELECT 'book', 2 UNION ALL
SELECT 'book', 9 UNION ALL
SELECT 'book', 8 UNION ALL
SELECT 'book', 3 UNION ALL

SELECT 'note', 11 UNION ALL

SELECT 'bike', 22 UNION ALL
SELECT 'bike', 26 

求每组中位数的代码:

SELECT grp,
         SUBSTRING_INDEX( SUBSTRING_INDEX( GROUP_CONCAT(val ORDER BY val), ',', COUNT(*)/2 ), ',', -1) as the_median,
         GROUP_CONCAT(val ORDER BY val) as all_vals_for_debug
FROM test.test_median
GROUP BY grp

输出:

grp | the_median| all_vals_for_debug
bike| 22        | 22,26
book| 4         | 2,2,3,4,7,8,9
note| 11        | 11

你可以使用这里的用户定义函数。

按维度分组的中位数:

SELECT your_dimension, avg(t1.val) as median_val FROM (
SELECT @rownum:=@rownum+1 AS `row_number`,
   IF(@dim <> d.your_dimension, @rownum := 0, NULL),
   @dim := d.your_dimension AS your_dimension,
   d.val
   FROM data d,  (SELECT @rownum:=0) r, (SELECT @dim := 'something_unreal') d
  WHERE 1
  -- put some where clause here
  ORDER BY d.your_dimension, d.val
) as t1
INNER JOIN  
(
  SELECT d.your_dimension,
    count(*) as total_rows
  FROM data d
  WHERE 1
  -- put same where clause here
  GROUP BY d.your_dimension
) as t2 USING(your_dimension)
WHERE 1
AND t1.row_number in ( floor((total_rows+1)/2), floor((total_rows+2)/2) )

GROUP BY your_dimension;

因为我只需要一个中位数和百分位数的解决方案，我根据这个线程中的发现做了一个简单而相当灵活的函数。我知道，如果我发现“现成的”功能很容易包含在我的项目中，我自己会很高兴，所以我决定快速分享:

function mysql_percentile($table, $column, $where, $percentile = 0.5) {

    $sql = "
            SELECT `t1`.`".$column."` as `percentile` FROM (
            SELECT @rownum:=@rownum+1 as `row_number`, `d`.`".$column."`
              FROM `".$table."` `d`,  (SELECT @rownum:=0) `r`
              ".$where."
              ORDER BY `d`.`".$column."`
            ) as `t1`, 
            (
              SELECT count(*) as `total_rows`
              FROM `".$table."` `d`
              ".$where."
            ) as `t2`
            WHERE 1
            AND `t1`.`row_number`=floor(`total_rows` * ".$percentile.")+1;
        ";

    $result = sql($sql, 1);

    if (!empty($result)) {
        return $result['percentile'];       
    } else {
        return 0;
    }

}

使用非常简单，例子来自我目前的项目:

...
$table = DBPRE."zip_".$slug;
$column = 'seconds';
$where = "WHERE `reached` = '1' AND `time` >= '".$start_time."'";

    $reaching['median'] = mysql_percentile($table, $column, $where, 0.5);
    $reaching['percentile25'] = mysql_percentile($table, $column, $where, 0.25);
    $reaching['percentile75'] = mysql_percentile($table, $column, $where, 0.75);
...

MySQL文档中这一页的注释有以下建议:

-- (mostly) High Performance scaling MEDIAN function per group
-- Median defined in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Median
--
-- by Peter Hlavac
-- 06.11.2008
--
-- Example Table:

DROP table if exists table_median;
CREATE TABLE table_median (id INTEGER(11),val INTEGER(11));
COMMIT;


INSERT INTO table_median (id, val) VALUES
(1, 7), (1, 4), (1, 5), (1, 1), (1, 8), (1, 3), (1, 6),
(2, 4),
(3, 5), (3, 2),
(4, 5), (4, 12), (4, 1), (4, 7);



-- Calculating the MEDIAN
SELECT @a := 0;
SELECT
id,
AVG(val) AS MEDIAN
FROM (
SELECT
id,
val
FROM (
SELECT
-- Create an index n for every id
@a := (@a + 1) mod o.c AS shifted_n,
IF(@a mod o.c=0, o.c, @a) AS n,
o.id,
o.val,
-- the number of elements for every id
o.c
FROM (
SELECT
t_o.id,
val,
c
FROM
table_median t_o INNER JOIN
(SELECT
id,
COUNT(1) AS c
FROM
table_median
GROUP BY
id
) t2
ON (t2.id = t_o.id)
ORDER BY
t_o.id,val
) o
) a
WHERE
IF(
-- if there is an even number of elements
-- take the lower and the upper median
-- and use AVG(lower,upper)
c MOD 2 = 0,
n = c DIV 2 OR n = (c DIV 2)+1,

-- if its an odd number of elements
-- take the first if its only one element
-- or take the one in the middle
IF(
c = 1,
n = 1,
n = c DIV 2 + 1
)
)
) a
GROUP BY
id;

-- Explanation:
-- The Statement creates a helper table like
--
-- n id val count
-- ----------------
-- 1, 1, 1, 7
-- 2, 1, 3, 7
-- 3, 1, 4, 7
-- 4, 1, 5, 7
-- 5, 1, 6, 7
-- 6, 1, 7, 7
-- 7, 1, 8, 7
--
-- 1, 2, 4, 1

-- 1, 3, 2, 2
-- 2, 3, 5, 2
--
-- 1, 4, 1, 4
-- 2, 4, 5, 4
-- 3, 4, 7, 4
-- 4, 4, 12, 4


-- from there we can select the n-th element on the position: count div 2 + 1 

知道确切的行数，你可以使用这个查询:

SELECT <value> AS VAL FROM <table> ORDER BY VAL LIMIT 1 OFFSET <half>

Where <half> = ceiling(<size> / 2.0) - 1