I'd suggest :
- first getting the 'order fields' value for the ticket you want :
SELECT field_order FROM mytable WHERE condition AND
identifier=the_one_you're_looking_for ORDER BY field_order DESC LIMIT 1
- then counting all the tickets up to this order :
SELECT count(*) FROM mytable WHERE condition AND field_order <= (SELECT
field_order FROM mytable WHERE condition AND
identifier=the_one_you're_looking_for ORDER BY field_order DESC LIMIT 1)
You could also use a plpgsql function to reimplement your PHP thing, which
should be faster than doing it in PHP, but probably slower than the
example above.
# But there is a simpler solution.
How do you model the position of a ticket in the queue ? What is the
'order field' you mention ? If your table has a SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, it's
monotonous, so you can use this without further worries.
table tickets_queues (id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY, queue_id, ticket_id,
UNIQUE( queue_id, ticket_id) )
to get the position of a ticket (by its ticket_id) in a queue :
SELECT count(*) FROM tickets_queue WHERE queue_id=# AND id <= (SELECT id FROM tickets_queue WHERE ticket_id=# AND
queue_id=#)