ranking entries in mysql table

Question

I have a MySQL table with many rows. The table has a popularity column. If I sort by popularity, I can get the rank of each item. Is it possible to retrieve the rank of a partic

Answer 1

If you are using an InnoDb table then you may consider building a clustered index on the popularity column. (only if the order by on popularity is a frequent query). The decision also depends on how varied the popularity column is (0 - 3 not so good).

You can look at this info on clustered index to see if this works for your case: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190639.aspx

This refers to SQL server but the concept is the same, also look up mysql documentation on this.