PHP & MySQL, joining tables

What I understand is, the SQL result with single SQL statement will be something like this:

each user's 15 top records with points and scores of all 15 records individually, AND sum of each user's points AND count of each user's records (less than 15), which can be a big chunk of data with all the user's names and data mixed in same result.

The code I posted, as I said, is an abstract. Every SQL call in the loop limits the query to 15, and if you use some prepared statements, like PDO Mysql, you can retrieve the data a lot faster by only changing the variables (user name) in the same database call.

Probably a matter of taste, but single SQL statement can easily return very big amount of data if the user list grows to few thousands or more.

What I can tell from what data you need, even if you can achieve this  in a single SQL shot, you will get awful amount of mixed garbage, which  you have to pick and choose the info you need with big and most likely nested loops and  control statements.

Sometimes, the simplest and and the  most primitive solutions yields the best results:

Here is the  code abstract (not actual programming code):

#Get all the users first:
mysql_result = SELECT user_name FROM events GROUP BY user_name
#then, loop inside that result:
while (rows = mysql_result->fetch){
each_user_result = SELECT SUM(user_points) AS sum_points, COUNT(user_score) as total_records,
                   user_points, user_score, user_name FROM events WHERE user_name = rows["user_name"] ORDER BY user_points DESC LIMIT 15
while(user_info = each_user_result->fetch){
 #use the user data here....
}
}

It hard to understand without knowing the definition of your fields. What's the difference between score and points? Please provide some sample data. Sounds like you are looking for a 'top n per group' solution.

Search for that term or see if this helps:

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/adam_machanic/archive/2008/02/08/who-s-on-first-solving-the-top-per-group-problem-part-1-technique.aspx

http://www.sql-ex.ru/help/select16.php