Too many tables; MySQL can only use 61 tables in a join

Question

What is the best way to export data from multiple tables in MySQL. I'm basically working with product details. Say a product has 150 attributes of data. How can I export that in a single row and then export it to a flat file in CSV or tabdelimited format.

Getting error Too many tables; MySQL can only use 61 tables in a join

/**** Get Resultset *****/
$rs = mysql_query($sql);
/**** End of Get Resultset *****/

$objProfileHistory->addHistory($this->profile_id, "Loaded ". mysql_num_rows($rs)." records");


$this->runQuery($sql);

$this->exportToCSV();

/**
  * getAttributeDetails
  */
function getAttributeDetails(){
    global $dbObj, $profile;

    $base_table = "catalog_product_entity";
    $select  = array();
    $tables  = array();
    $i   = 0;

    $profile->showLog("Start fields mapping", "success");

   if( is_array($this->attributes_in_db) && sizeof($this->attributes_in_db) > 0 ){
    $arr = implode("','", $this->attributes_in_db);
    $sql = "select attribute_id, attribute_code, backend_type, frontend_input
        from eav_attribute 
        where attribute_code in ('".$arr."') 
        and entity_type_id = 
         (select entity_type_id 
          from eav_entity_type 
          where entity_type_code = 'catalog_product')";
    $rs = $dbObj->customqry($sql);

    if( $rs ){
     while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ){
      $backend_type  = $row["backend_type"];
      $attribut_code = $row["attribute_code"];
      $attribute_id = $row["attribute_id"];
      $frontend_input = $row["frontend_input"];
      switch( $backend_type ){
       case "text":
        $where[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".attribute_id=".$attribute_id;
        $and[]  = $base_table.".entity_id=".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".entity_id";
        $select[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".value as ".$attribut_code;
        $tables[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type." as ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i;
       break;

       case "decimal":
        $where[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".attribute_id=".$attribute_id;
        $and[]  = $base_table.".entity_id=".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".entity_id";
        $select[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".value as ".$attribut_code;
        $tables[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type." as ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i;
       break;

       case "static":
        $where[]  = $base_table."".$i.".entity_id=".$base_table.".entity_id";
        $and[]  = $base_table.".entity_id=".$base_table."".$i.".entity_id";
        $select[]  = $base_table."".$i.".".$attribut_code." as ".$attribut_code;
        $tables[]  = $base_table." as ".$base_table."".$i;
       break;

       case "int":
        if( $attribut_code == "tax_class_id" && $frontend_input == "select" ){
         $where[]  = "tax_class{$i}.class_id=(select ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".value from ".$base_table."_".$backend_type." as ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i." where  ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".attribute_id=".$attribute_id." and ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".entity_id=".$base_table.".entity_id limit 1))";
         $and[]  = "";
         $select[]  = "tax_class{$i}.class_name as {$attribut_code}";
         $tables[]  = "tax_class as tax_class{$i}";
         } else if( $frontend_input == "select" ){
         $where[]  = "eav_attribute_option_value{$i}.option_id=(select ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".value from ".$base_table."_".$backend_type." as ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i." where  ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".attribute_id=".$attribute_id." and ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".entity_id=".$base_table.".entity_id limit 1))";
         $and[]  = "";
         $select[] = "eav_attribute_option_value{$i}.value as {$attribut_code}";
         $tables[]  = "eav_attribute_option_value as eav_attribute_option_value{$i}";
        } else {
         $where[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".attribute_id=".$attribute_id;
         $and[]  = $base_table.".entity_id=".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".entity_id";
         $select[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".value as ".$attribut_code;
         $tables[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type." as ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i;
        }
       break;

       case "varchar":
        $where[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".attribute_id=".$attribute_id;
        $and[]  = $base_table.".entity_id=".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".entity_id";
        $select[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".value as ".$attribut_code;
        $tables[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type." as ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i;
       break;

       case "datetime":
        $where[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".attribute_id=".$attribute_id;
        $and[]  = $base_table.".entity_id=".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".entity_id";
        $select[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i.".value as ".$attribut_code;
        $tables[]  = $base_table."_".$backend_type." as ".$base_table."_".$backend_type."".$i;
       break;
      }//switch
      $i++;
     }//while


     $sql = "select ".implode(",", $select)." from ".$base_table;
     for($i=0; $i < sizeof($select); $i++){
      $sql .= " left join ". $tables[$i] . " on (".$where[$i];//." and ".$and[$i].")";
      if( strlen($and[$i]) > 0 ){
       $sql .= " and ".$and[$i].")";
      }
     }//for
     $sql .= " group by {$base_table}.entity_id ";
    }//if
    //echo $sql; exit;
    return $sql;
   }
   //echo $sql;
   //echo "<pre>";print_r($tables);print_r($select);print_r($where);print_r($and);
  }//end function

  /**
  * runQuery
  */
  function runQuery( $sql ){
   global $dbObj, $profile;
   if( $sql != "" ){
    $rs = $dbObj->customqry( $sql );
    $profile->showLog("Loaded ". mysql_num_rows($rs) ." records", "success");
    if( $rs ){
     $i = 0;
     while( $row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $rs ) ){
      $cnt = sizeof($this->attributes_in_db);
      for($j=0; $j < $cnt; $j++){
       $db_key  = $this->attributes_in_db[$j];
       $file_key = $this->attributes_in_file[$j];
       $this->export_data[$i][$db_key] = $row[$db_key];
      }
      $i++;
     }//while
    }
   }//if
  }//end function


  /**
  * exportToCSV
  */
  function exportToCSV(){
   global $smarty, $objProfileHistory, $profile;
   //$newFileName = $smarty->root_dir."/export/".$this->filename; //file name that you want to create
   $cnt = sizeof($this->var_array);
   for($i=0; $i < $cnt; $i++){
    extract($this->var_array[$i]);
   }//for


   if( $delimiter = "\t" ){
    $delimiter = "\t";//$delimiter;
   }

   if( strlen($filename) < 1 ){
    $filename = time().".csv";
   }

//    echo "<pre>";
//    print_r($this->action_array);
//    print_r($this->var_array);
//    print_r($this->map_array);
//    exit;
   # add amazon headers
   if( $this->action_array[0]['type'] == 'header' ){
//     $template_type  = $this->var_array[0]['template_type'];
//     $version   = $this->var_array[0]['version'];
//     $status_message = $this->var_array[0]['status_message'];
    $sStr = "TemplateType=".$template_type."{$delimiter}{$delimiter}Version=".$version."{$delimiter}{$delimiter}{$status_message}";
    $sStr .= "� ��\n"; //to seprate every record
   }





   $export_path = $path;
   $x_path = $profile->createDir( $export_path );

   $newFileName = $x_path ."/". $filename;

   $fpWrite = fopen($newFileName, "w"); // open file as writable

   # create header
   $cnt_header = sizeof($this->attributes_in_file);
   for( $i=0; $i < $cnt_header; $i++){
    $sStr .= $deli . $this->attributes_in_file[$i];
    $deli = $delimiter;
   }//for
   $sStr .= "� ��\n"; //to seprate every record

   # attach data
   $cnt_row = sizeof($this->export_data);
   for( $i=0; $i < $cnt_row; $i++ ){
    $sStr .= $saperator;
    $newdeli = "";
    for($j=0; $j < $cnt_header; $j++){
     $key  = $this->attributes_in_db[$j];
     $sku = $this->export_data[$i]["sku"];

Answer 1

You're using an EAV design, and trying to re-construct a single row from a variable number of attributes. This points out one of the many landmines you'll encounter using the EAV design: there's a practical limit on the number of joins you can do in a single SQL query.

Especially in MySQL -- there's a hard limit, as you've found. But even in other RDBMS brands, there's an effective limit because the cost of joins is geometric with respect to the number of tables.

If you use EAV, don't try to re-construct a row in SQL as if you had a conventional database design. Instead, fetch the attributes as rows, sorted by the entity id. Then post-process them in your application code. This does mean that you can't dump the data in one step -- you have to write code to loop over the attribute rows, and reform each row of data before you can output it.

EAV is not a convenient database design. There are many expensive drawbacks to using it, and you've just hit one of them.

---

See http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/opinion-pieces/bad-carma/ for a great story about how using EAV doomed one business.

And also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner-platform_effect because EAV is an example of this Anti-pattern.

---

I understand the need to support a dynamic set of attributes per product in a catalog. But EAV is going to kill your application. Here's what I do to support dynamic attributes:

• Define a real column in the base table for each attribute that's common to all product types. Product name, price, quantity in stock, etc. Work hard to imagine the canonical product entity so you can include as many attributes as possible in this set.

• Define one more column of type TEXT for all additional attributes of each given product type. Store in this column as Serialized LOB of the attributes, in whatever format suits you: XML, JSON, YAML, your own homemade DSL, etc.

  Treat this as a single column in your SQL queries. Any searching, sorting, or display you need to do based on these attributes requires you to fetch the whole TEXT blob into your application deserialize it, and analyze the attributes using application code.

Answer 2

If you have this many attributes, I expect that it is a sparse database, so you have a great deal of wasted space.

You may want to look at using an Entity-Attribute-Value database instead, if possible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity-attribute-value_model

What this buys you is a way to refactor the database, but have it be more extensible, and reduce how many tables you need. You should be able to come down to 4-6 tables (2-3 entity tables with their attributes). It is a bit more difficult to create the queries as all the queries will be dynamic, but it will simplify your export, and the database maintenance should be simpler.

If you must use this schema you may want to create several triggers and then you can call the trigger, which is joining several tables, and then make your query, but you will take a huge performance hit.

UPDATE:

Since an EAV table is being used, and MySQL doesn't do a pivot function you may want to read the answer to this question: How to pivot a MySQL entity-attribute-value schema How to pivot a MySQL entity-attribute-value schema