Using Inner Join To Determine The Interval Between Specific Records And Related Events In A Table

I have a simple table that is used to record events against specific visits: Describe Histories; +------------------+ | Field | +------------------+ | Hi

Solution 1:

Assuming a transfer or discharge is a unique event you could write like so

SELECT
   b.EventTime - a.EventTime        
FROM
   Histories a
   INNER JOIN Histories b
   ON a.VisitID = b.VisitID
WHERE
   a.event = 'Admission'and
   b.eventin ('Transfer', 'Discharge')

If you were interested in the last transfer or discharge you would write

SELECT
   b.EventTime - a.EventTime        
FROM
   Histories a
   INNER JOIN  Histories b
    ON a.VisitID = b.VisitID

   INNER JOIN 
   (SELECT
         VisitId, 
         MAX(HistoryID) HistoryID
    FROM Histories 
    WHERE 
       b.eventin ('Transfer', 'Discharge')GROUPBY 
       VisitId) maxHistory
   ON b.HistoryID = maxHistoryId.HistoryId

WHERE
   a.event = 'Admission'

However if a Visit can result in multiple visits as Andriy M mentions you have a Gaps And islands problem (specifically the islands)

In that case you want the following

SELECT  
       a.VisitId,
       a.Event a_Event, 
       a.Event b_Event, 
       a.EventTime a_EventTime,
       b.EventTime b_EventTime,
       b_EventTime - a_EventTime

FROM   histories a 
       INNER JOIN histories B 
         ON a.visitID = b.visitID 
            AND a.EventTime < b.eventTime 
       INNER JOIN (SELECT a.VisitId, 
                          a.EventTime      a_EventTime, 
                          Min(b.EventTime) b_EventTime 
                   FROM   histories a 
                          INNER JOIN histories B 
                            ON a.visitID = b.visitID 
                               AND a.EventTime < b.eventTime 
                   GROUPBY a_EventTime, 
                             a.VisitId) MinTime 
         ON a.VisitID = MinTime.VisitID 
            AND a.EventTime = a_EventTime 
            AND b.EventTime = b_EventTime 

DEMO

Using the following sample data

CREATETABLE Histories 
    (
     HistoryId int auto_increment primary key, 
     VisitId int,
     Location varchar(20),
     Event varchar(20), 
     EventTime datetime
    );

INSERTINTO Histories
(VisitId, Location, Event, EventTime)
VALUES
(1, 'A', 'Admission', '2012-01-01'),
(1, 'A', 'Discharge', '2012-01-03'),
(2, 'B', 'Admission', '2012-01-02'),
(2, 'C', 'Transfer', '2012-01-05'),
(2, 'C', 'Discharge', '2012-01-06'),
(3, 'D', 'Admission', '2012-01-06'),
(3, 'E', 'Transfer', '2012-01-07'),
(3, 'F', 'Transfer', '2012-01-08'),
(3, 'F', 'Discharge', '2012-01-10');

You get the following results

VISITID    A_EVENT   B_EVENT    A_EVENTTIME                     B_EVENTTIME                     B_EVENTTIME - A_EVENTTIME
1          Admission Discharge  January, 01 2012 00:00:00-0800  January, 03 2012 00:00:00-0800  2000000
2          Admission Transfer   January, 02 2012 00:00:00-0800  January, 05 2012 00:00:00-0800  3000000
2          Transfer  Discharge  January, 05 2012 00:00:00-0800  January, 06 2012 00:00:00-0800  1000000
3          Admission Transfer   January, 06 2012 00:00:00-0800  January, 07 2012 00:00:00-0800  1000000
3          Transfer  Transfer   January, 07 2012 00:00:00-0800  January, 08 2012 00:00:00-0800  1000000
3          Transfer  Discharge  January, 08 2012 00:00:00-0800  January, 10 2012 00:00:00-0800  2000000

Notes:

• This assumes you don't care about Admissions/Transger that don't have a corresponding discharge/transfer yet.
• If you know that eventTime doesn't change after the record is entered you could use historyID instead of eventime to determine the order of events.
• You know how to get the Event Time difference in the format that you like

Solution 2:

How does this work for you?

SELECT 
    h1.HistoryId, 
    h1.VisitId, 
    h1.EventAS InitialEvent, 
    h2.EventAS FinalEvent, 
    h1.Location AS StartLocation,
    h2.Location AS EndLocation,
    IF(h2.HistoryId, UNIX_TIMESTAMP(h2.EventTime) - UNIX_TIMESTAMP(h1.EventTime), NULL) AS transfer_duration_seconds
FROM Histories h1 
LEFT JOIN Histories h2 ON h1.VisitId = h2.VisitId AND h1.Location != h2.location AND h2. EventTime > h1. EventTime
GROUPBY h1.VisitId