MySQL difference between two rows of a SELECT Statement

I am trying to make the difference of two rows in an mysql database.
I have this table containing ID, kilometers, date, car_id, car_driver etc...
Since I don't always enter the information in the table in the correct order, I may end up with information like this:

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

With a select statement I am able to sort my table correctly:

SELECT * FROM mytable ORDER BY car_driver ASC, car_id ASC, date ASC

I will obtain this:

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

Now I would like to make a view where basically I have this extra information: Number of kilometers since last date and I would like to obtain something like this:

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

I thought of doing an INNER JOIN to perform what I wanted, but I have the feeling I can't do the join on my ID since they are not sorted correctly.
Is there a way to achieve what I want?

Shall I create a view with a sort of row_number that I can then used in my INNER JOIN?

Solution 1:

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

Sql Fiddle

Or, by emulating a lag() function through MySql hackiness...

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

Sql Fiddle

Solution 2:

In Postgres, Oracle and SQL-Server 2012, this is plain simple, using the LAG() function:

SELECT
    id, kilometers, date,
    kilometers 
    - COALESCE( LAG(kilometers) OVER (ORDER BY date ASC, car_driver ASC, id ASC)
              , kilometers) 
        AS number_km_since_last_date
FROM
    mytable ;

In MySQL, we have to do some nasty constructions. Either an inline subquery (with probably not very good performance):

SELECT
    id, kilometers, date,
    kilometers - COALESCE(
            ( SELECT p.kilometers
              FROM mytable AS p
              WHERE ( p.date = m.date AND p.car_driver = m.car_driver
                                                     AND p.id < m.id
                   OR p.date = m.date AND p.car_driver < m.car_driver
                   OR p.date < m.date
                    )
              ORDER BY p.date DESC, p.car_driver DESC
                  LIMIT 1
            ), kilometers) 
        AS number_km_since_last_date
FROM
    mytable AS m ;

or a self-join (already provided by @Michael Fredrickson) or using MySQL variables (already provided as well).

If you want the counter to start again from 0 for every car_id, which would be done with PARTITION BY in many other DBMS:

SELECT
    id, kilometers, date,
    kilometers 
    - COALESCE( LAG(kilometers) OVER (PARTITION BY car_id 
                                      ORDER BY date ASC, car_driver ASC, id ASC)
              , kilometers) 
        AS number_km_since_last_date
FROM
    mytable ;

it could be done in MySQL like this:

SELECT
    id, kilometers, date,
    kilometers - COALESCE(
            ( SELECT p.kilometers
              FROM mytable AS p
              WHERE p.car_id = m.car_id
                AND ( p.date = m.date AND p.car_driver = m.car_driver
                                                     AND p.id < m.id
                   OR p.date = m.date AND p.car_driver < m.car_driver 
                   OR p.date < m.date
                    )
              ORDER BY p.date DESC, p.car_driver DESC
                  LIMIT 1
            ), kilometers) 
        AS number_km_since_last_date
FROM
    mytable AS m ;