how do I create a bounded return from mysql?

Question

I have a list of users, there is a column 'points' and I need to create a list of the ten people with lower points and the ten people with higher points than the user.

The only trouble is I have no way of knowing at this stage what their points will be so I can't use hard values.

Help? Thanks in advance :)

Answer 1

SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY points ASC LIMIT 10 UNION
SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY points DESC LIMIT 10

Answer 2

Try this for more points then him

select * from users u
         where u.points > (select u2.points from users u2 where u2.id = ID_OF_THIS_USER)
         order by u.points ascending
         limit 10

and this for less points then him

select * from users u
         where u.points < (select u2.points from users u2 where u2.id = ID_OF_THIS_USER)
         order by u.points descending
         limit 10        

As you can see you are getting specified user points number by subquery.