Generating a range of numbers in MySQL

Question

How do I generate a range of consecutive numbers (one per line) from a MySQL query so that I can insert them into a table?

For example:

nr
1
2
3
4
5
         


        

Answer 1

This is based on a previous answer (https://stackoverflow.com/a/53125278/2009581), but is compatible with MySQL 5.7. It works for replicas and read-only users:

SELECT x1.N + x10.N*10 + x100.N*100 + x1000.N*1000
  FROM (SELECT 0 AS N UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 2 UNION ALL SELECT 3 UNION ALL SELECT 4 UNION ALL SELECT 5 UNION ALL SELECT 6 UNION ALL SELECT 7 UNION ALL SELECT 8 UNION ALL SELECT 9) x1,
       (SELECT 0 AS N UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 2 UNION ALL SELECT 3 UNION ALL SELECT 4 UNION ALL SELECT 5 UNION ALL SELECT 6 UNION ALL SELECT 7 UNION ALL SELECT 8 UNION ALL SELECT 9) x10,
       (SELECT 0 AS N UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 2 UNION ALL SELECT 3 UNION ALL SELECT 4 UNION ALL SELECT 5 UNION ALL SELECT 6 UNION ALL SELECT 7 UNION ALL SELECT 8 UNION ALL SELECT 9) x100,
       (SELECT 0 AS N UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 2 UNION ALL SELECT 3 UNION ALL SELECT 4 UNION ALL SELECT 5 UNION ALL SELECT 6 UNION ALL SELECT 7 UNION ALL SELECT 8 UNION ALL SELECT 9) x1000
 WHERE x1.N + x10.N*10 + x100.N*100 + x1000.N*1000 <= @max;

It generates integers in the range of [0, @max].

Answer 2

DECLARE i INT DEFAULT 0;

WHILE i < 6 DO
  /* insert into table... */
  SET i = i + 1;
END WHILE;

Answer 3

Here's a hardware engineer's version of Pittsburgh DBA's solution:

SELECT
    (TWO_1.SeqValue + TWO_2.SeqValue + TWO_4.SeqValue + TWO_8.SeqValue + TWO_16.SeqValue) SeqValue
FROM
    (SELECT 0 SeqValue UNION ALL SELECT 1 SeqValue) TWO_1
    CROSS JOIN (SELECT 0 SeqValue UNION ALL SELECT 2 SeqValue) TWO_2
    CROSS JOIN (SELECT 0 SeqValue UNION ALL SELECT 4 SeqValue) TWO_4
    CROSS JOIN (SELECT 0 SeqValue UNION ALL SELECT 8 SeqValue) TWO_8
    CROSS JOIN (SELECT 0 SeqValue UNION ALL SELECT 16 SeqValue) TWO_16;

Answer 4

Very similar to the accepted response, but using the new WITH syntax for mysql >= 8.0 which makes a lot more legible and the intent is also clearer

WITH DIGITS (N) AS (
  SELECT 0 UNION ALL SELECT 1 UNION ALL SELECT 2 UNION ALL SELECT 3 UNION ALL
  SELECT 4 UNION ALL SELECT 5 UNION ALL SELECT 6 UNION ALL SELECT 7 UNION ALL
  SELECT 8 UNION ALL SELECT 9)
SELECT 
  UNITS.N + TENS.N*10 + HUNDREDS.N*100 + THOUSANDS.N*1000 
FROM 
  DIGITS AS UNITS, DIGITS AS TENS, DIGITS AS HUNDREDS, DIGITS AS THOUSANDS;

Answer 5

If you need the records in a table and you want to avoid concurrency issues, here's how to do it.

First you create a table in which to store your records

CREATE TABLE `incr` (
  `Id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
  PRIMARY KEY  (`Id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM  DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Secondly create a stored procedure like this:

DELIMITER ;;
CREATE PROCEDURE dowhile()
BEGIN
  DECLARE v1 INT DEFAULT 5;
  WHILE v1 > 0 DO
    INSERT incr VALUES (NULL);
    SET v1 = v1 - 1;
  END WHILE;
END;;
DELIMITER ;

Lastly call the SP:

CALL dowhile();
SELECT * FROM incr;

Result

Id
1
2
3
4
5