How can I calculate the difference between rows in a MySQL SELECT query?

Calculating Differences between Rows in a MySQL SELECT Query

To calculate the difference between rows in a SELECT query, consider the following approach:

Using a LEFT JOIN with a MAX() Subquery

You can use a LEFT JOIN to connect a row with its previous one, based on a condition. In your case, you want to find the previous row for each date:

SELECT
    mt1.ID,
    mt1.Kilometers,
    mt1.date,
    mt1.Kilometers - IFNULL(mt2.Kilometers, 0) AS number_km_since_last_date   
FROM
    myTable mt1
    LEFT JOIN myTable mt2
        ON mt2.Date = (
            SELECT MAX(Date)
            FROM myTable mt3
            WHERE mt3.Date < mt1.Date
        )
ORDER BY mt1.date

Using a Lag() Function Emulation

Since MySQL doesn't have a lag() function, you can emulate one using a user-defined variable:

SET @kilo=0;

SELECT
    mt1.ID,
    mt1.Kilometers - @kilo AS number_km_since_last_date,
    @kilo := mt1.Kilometers Kilometers,
    mt1.date
FROM myTable mt1
ORDER BY mt1.date

Results

Both methods will produce the desired output:

ID | Kilometers | date       | car_id | car_driver | number_km_since_last_date   
 1 | 100        | 2012-05-04 | 1 | 1 | 0  
 2 | 200        | 2012-05-08 | 1 | 1 | 100  
 4 | 600        | 2012-05-16 | 1 | 1 | 400  
 3 | 1000       | 2012-05-25 | 1 | 1 | 400

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