180. Consecutive Numbers


Write a SQL query to find all numbers that appear at least three times consecutively.

+----+-----+
| Id | Num |
+----+-----+
| 1  |  1  |
| 2  |  1  |
| 3  |  1  |
| 4  |  2  |
| 5  |  1  |
| 6  |  2  |
| 7  |  2  |
+----+-----+

For example, given the above Logs table, 1 is the only number that appears consecutively for at least three times.

+-----------------+
| ConsecutiveNums |
+-----------------+
| 1               |
+-----------------+

Solution

Approach: Using DISTINCT and WHERE clause [Accepted]

Algorithm

Consecutive appearing means the Id of the Num are next to each others. Since this problem asks for numbers appearing at least three times consecutively, we can use 3 aliases for this table Logs, and then check whether 3 consecutive numbers are all the same.

SELECT *
FROM
    Logs l1,
    Logs l2,
    Logs l3
WHERE
    l1.Id = l2.Id - 1
    AND l2.Id = l3.Id - 1
    AND l1.Num = l2.Num
    AND l2.Num = l3.Num
;
Id Num Id Num Id Num
1 1 2 1 3 1
>Note: The first two columns are from l1, then the next two are from l2, and the last two are from l3.

Then we can select any Num column from the above table to get the target data. However, we need to add a keyword DISTINCT because it will display a duplicated number if one number appears more than 3 times consecutively.

MySQL

SELECT DISTINCT
    l1.Num AS ConsecutiveNums
FROM
    Logs l1,
    Logs l2,
    Logs l3
WHERE
    l1.Id = l2.Id - 1
    AND l2.Id = l3.Id - 1
    AND l1.Num = l2.Num
    AND l2.Num = l3.Num
;
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