Simple way to calculate median with MySQL

Question

What\'s the simplest (and hopefully not too slow) way to calculate the median with MySQL? I\'ve used AVG(x) for finding the mean, but I\'m having a hard time fi

Answer 1

Optionally, you could also do this in a stored procedure:

DROP PROCEDURE IF EXISTS median;
DELIMITER //
CREATE PROCEDURE median (table_name VARCHAR(255), column_name VARCHAR(255), where_clause VARCHAR(255))
BEGIN
  -- Set default parameters
  IF where_clause IS NULL OR where_clause = '' THEN
    SET where_clause = 1;
  END IF;

  -- Prepare statement
  SET @sql = CONCAT(
    "SELECT AVG(middle_values) AS 'median' FROM (
      SELECT t1.", column_name, " AS 'middle_values' FROM
        (
          SELECT @row:=@row+1 as `row`, x.", column_name, "
          FROM ", table_name," AS x, (SELECT @row:=0) AS r
          WHERE ", where_clause, " ORDER BY x.", column_name, "
        ) AS t1,
        (
          SELECT COUNT(*) as 'count'
          FROM ", table_name, " x
          WHERE ", where_clause, "
        ) AS t2
        -- the following condition will return 1 record for odd number sets, or 2 records for even number sets.
        WHERE t1.row >= t2.count/2
          AND t1.row <= ((t2.count/2)+1)) AS t3
    ");

  -- Execute statement
  PREPARE stmt FROM @sql;
  EXECUTE stmt;
END//
DELIMITER ;


-- Sample usage:
-- median(table_name, column_name, where_condition);
CALL median('products', 'price', NULL);