> how do I do this one piece of a query in MySQL, since I'm not a MySQL DBA
Honestly for most things, the actual documentation is the best resource. I needed to learn to stop looking for solutions to my issue on various fora (like SO) and just read the primary documentation from the vendor. Have a look at dev.mysql.com or mariadb.com/docs/server
One of the problems with this is that documentation is increasingly also written with LLMs by the vendors, and now is often so vague and riddled with errors to be basically unusable, if not counterproductive by sending you the wrong way.
Microsoft has a great racket going on there. Vibecode shitty, unreliable services, offer wrong information in the slop documentation, then charge an arm and a leg for premium support which, in many cases, will just be an employee regurgitating more wrong AI slop information to you.
> how do I do this one piece of a query in MySQL, since I'm not a MySQL DBA
Honestly for most things, the actual documentation is the best resource. I needed to learn to stop looking for solutions to my issue on various fora (like SO) and just read the primary documentation from the vendor. Have a look at dev.mysql.com or mariadb.com/docs/server