MYSQL fetching limited data of weekly data

Question

i'm displaying current week events to user.. fetching data from current date to +7 day of current date value.. it achived by using these query

SELECT * from events WHERE ( start_date BETWEEN '2013-01-01' AND '2013-01-07' ) order by start_date ASC

i have problem that if,

start_date 2013-01-01 have 10 records
start_date 2013-01-02 have 1 records
start_date 2013-01-03 have 12 records
....
...

then it take more time to fetching data from DB.. so, i need to display only 3 data form each day

My tabel,

id      start_date      end_date        event_title

1       2013-01-01      2013-01-03      event_1
2       2013-01-01      2013-01-01      event_2
3       2013-01-01      2013-01-01      event_3
4       2013-01-01      2013-01-01      event_4
-       2013-01-01      2013-01-01      event_4
-       2013-01-01      2013-01-01      event_4

5       2013-01-02      2013-01-02      event_5

6       2013-01-03      2013-01-03      event_6
7       2013-01-03      2013-01-03      event_7
8       2013-01-03      2013-01-03      event_8
9       2013-01-03      2013-01-03      event_9

10      2013-01-04      2013-01-04      event_10

expected output as ,

id      start_date      end_date        event_title

1       2013-01-01      2013-01-03      event_1
2       2013-01-01      2013-01-01      event_2
3       2013-01-01      2013-01-01      event_3

4       2013-01-02      2013-01-02      event_5

5       2013-01-03      2013-01-03      event_6
6       2013-01-03      2013-01-03      event_7
7       2013-01-03      2013-01-03      event_8

8       2013-01-04      2013-01-04      event_10

can any one help solve these... possible in single Query

Answer 1

This query should work

SET @level = 0;
SET @group = '';
SELECT 
    *
FROM (
    SELECT 
        id,
        start_date,
        end_date,
        event_title,
        @level := IF(@group = start_date, @level+1, 1) AS LEVEL, 
        @group := start_date AS StartDate
    FROM test
    /*WHERE start_date BETWEEN NOW() AND DATE_ADD(NOW(), INTERVAL 7 DAY)*/
    ORDER BY start_date 
) rs
WHERE LEVEL < 4 

This will fetch 3 records per date. if you want to apply where condition uncomment it according to your needs

Demo

Output

id  start_date  end_date    event_title level StartDate 
1   2013-01-01  2013-01-03  event_1     1   2013-01-01 
2   2013-01-01  2013-01-01  event_2     2   2013-01-01 
3   2013-01-01  2013-01-01  event_3     3   2013-01-01 
7   2013-01-02  2013-01-02  event_5     1   2013-01-02 
8   2013-01-03  2013-01-03  event_6     1   2013-01-03 
9   2013-01-03  2013-01-03  event_7     2   2013-01-03 
10  2013-01-03  2013-01-03  event_8     3   2013-01-03 
12  2013-01-04  2013-01-04  event_10    1   2013-01-04 

Answer 2

Try this:

SELECT id, start_date, end_date, event_title 
FROM (SELECT id, start_date, end_date, event_title, 
             IF(@lastDate=(@lastDate:=start_date), @auto:=@auto+1, @auto:=0) autoCol 
      FROM events e, (SELECT @lastDate:='', @auto:=0) A 
      WHERE start_date BETWEEN '2013-01-01' AND '2013-01-07' 
      ORDER BY start_date ASC) A 
WHERE autoCol < 3;

Check this link SQL FIDDLE DEMO

OUTPUT

id  start_date  end_date    event_title 
1   2013-01-01  2013-01-03  event_1     
2   2013-01-01  2013-01-01  event_2     
3   2013-01-01  2013-01-01  event_3     
7   2013-01-02  2013-01-02  event_5     
8   2013-01-03  2013-01-03  event_6     
9   2013-01-03  2013-01-03  event_7     
10  2013-01-03  2013-01-03  event_8     
12  2013-01-04  2013-01-04  event_10