How to Find the Three Nearest Upcoming Events in MySQL?

Retrieving Nearest Upcoming Events Using MySQL Queries

To ascertain the upcoming events closest to a specified date in a MySQL database, a well-crafted query can be employed. Consider the following table structure:

EVENT_ID    EVENT_NAME      EVENT_START_DATE
1           test            2011-06-01 23:00:00
2           test2           2011-06-03 23:00:00
3           test3           2011-07-01 23:00:00
4           test4           2011-08-09 23:00:00
5           test5           2011-06-02 23:00:00
6           test6           2011-04-20 23:00:00

To retrieve the three events with the closest upcoming start dates, utilize the following query:

SELECT event_id
FROM Table
ORDER BY ABS(DATEDIFF(EVENT_START_DATE, NOW()))
LIMIT 3;

This query employs the ABS() function to ensure that events with past start dates are disregarded. Events occurring in the future are prioritized based on their start dates in ascending order.

Alternatively, if only events that have yet to occur are desired, the query can be modified as shown below:

SELECT event_id
FROM Table
WHERE EVENT_START_DATE > NOW()
ORDER BY EVENT_START_DATE
LIMIT 3;

This customized query filters the events based on their future start dates, ensuring that only upcoming events are included in the results.

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