Hello mysql list, I am looking for a little guidance on a a potential
query. I am sure most people have heard of the limited degrees of
separation one has to become connected to another person. This is
much like the myspace "in your extended network" idea, though I would
like my implementation to not be broken.
If person A exists in mysql, as well as persons B through Z, and some
are related or known to each other, they have a relationship. Very
much a family tree. While I can see how one wold start at person A,
and look for the relationship to another person, thereby drilling down
to other known links...
I would like to take it one step further. I think celebrities are the
best example, so I would be able to enter in myself, and ask the
question: "show me a tree of how I am closest to x celebrity".
Since this is not a real project, and just a hypothetical question,
assume that the links are known to be valid, and there is some proven
way to key one person to another that is accurate. For example, in
this case, we would use an honor system where Person A logs in, and
selects all the other persons that they know.
What would be the query to find out all the relationships of person A
to "x celebrity"? How expensive is this query?
I am looking to build something as a real project that will use this
idea as a feature, albeit in a different way, but the end result will
be the same. I get the feeling this is one, that if it is a used and
popular service, the database design before it is made will be highly
important.
I smell a bit more recursion in this idea that I am used to, and also
feel that doing most of the work in the DB layer, and not in the
application layer, is going to give me the best performance.
Does anyone have suggestions, or perhaps examples of this in working
use? Maybe there is a known algo of function that gets close to this
already.
Thank you
--
Scott
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