Calculate balance with mysql

Mannitou picture Mannitou · Feb 22, 2012 · Viewed 8.5k times · Source

I have a table which contains the following data:

ID      In       Out 
1      100.00    0.00   
2       10.00    0.00   
3        0.00   70.00    
4        5.00    0.00    
5        0.00   60.00   
6       20.00    0.00     

Now I need a query which gives me the following result:

ID      In       Out    Balance
1      100.00    0.00   100.00
2       10.00    0.00   110.00
3        0.00   70.00    40.00
4        5.00    0.00    45.00
5        0.00   60.00   -15.00
6       20.00    0.00     5.00

Is it possible to do this with one query, without using a trigger or stored procedures?

Answer

Simon at My School Portal picture Simon at My School Portal · Feb 22, 2012

Short answer, yes

Longer answer, you can use a variable to tally it up as it iterates down the rows, i.e.

SELECT 
    `table`.`ID`,
    `table`.`In`,
    `table`.`Out`,
    @Balance := @Balance + `table`.`In` - `table`.`Out` AS `Balance`
FROM `table`, (SELECT @Balance := 0) AS variableInit
ORDER BY `table`.`ID` ASC

The , (SELECT @Balance := 0) AS variableInit ensures that @Balance is initialised to 0 before you start. For each row it then sets @Balance to be @Balance + In - Out, and then outputs the calculated value.

Also it's worth making certain the ORDER is consistent as otherwise the Balance will vary depending on what order the rows are returned. If you wanted to then order it back to front, for example, you could use this as a subquery as then the outer query deals with the calculated values thus ensuring the Balance remains correct i.e.

SELECT
    `balanceCalculation`.`ID`,
    `balanceCalculation`.`In`,
    `balanceCalculation`.`Out`,
    `balanceCalculation`.`Balance`
FROM (
    SELECT 
        `table`.`ID`,
        `table`.`In`,
        `table`.`Out`,
        @Balance := @Balance + `table`.`In` - `table`.`Out` AS `Balance`
    FROM `table`, (SELECT @Balance := 0) AS variableInit
    ORDER BY `table`.`ID` ASC
) AS `balanceCalculation`
ORDER BY `balanceCalculation`.`ID` DESC