You can use GROUP_CONCAT:
SELECT person_id,
GROUP_CONCAT(hobbies SEPARATOR ', ')
FROM peoples_hobbies
GROUP BY person_id;
As Ludwig stated in his comment, you can add the DISTINCT operator to avoid duplicates:
SELECT person_id,
GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT hobbies SEPARATOR ', ')
FROM peoples_hobbies
GROUP BY person_id;
As Jan stated in their comment, you can also sort the values before imploding it using ORDER BY:
SELECT person_id,
GROUP_CONCAT(hobbies ORDER BY hobbies ASC SEPARATOR ', ')
FROM peoples_hobbies
GROUP BY person_id;
As Dag stated in his comment, there is a 1024 byte limit on the result. To solve this, run this query before your query:
SET group_concat_max_len = 2048;
Of course, you can change 2048 according to your needs. To calculate and assign the value:
SET group_concat_max_len = CAST(
(SELECT SUM(LENGTH(hobbies)) + COUNT(*) * LENGTH(', ')
FROM peoples_hobbies
GROUP BY person_id) AS UNSIGNED);
For MySQL 5.0.3 and higher, you can use BIT. The manual says:
As of MySQL 5.0.3, the BIT data type is used to store bit-field
values. A type of BIT(M) enables storage of M-bit values. M can range
from 1 to 64.
Otherwise, according to the MySQL manual you can use BOOL or BOOLEAN, which are at the moment aliases of tinyint(1):
Bool, Boolean: These types are synonyms for TINYINT(1). A value of
zero is considered false. Non-zero
values are considered true.
MySQL also states that:
We intend to implement full boolean
type handling, in accordance with
standard SQL, in a future MySQL
release.
References: http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/numeric-type-overview.html
Best Answer
DDL statements cause an implicit commit and there is nothing you can do about it. There is no way to stop this behaviour.
Which DDL statements have this behaviour changes over time so you need to check for your version.
When we are just extending the schema, new tables/columns/views/procs/etc, that will not affect existing code then automation is OK, just check for errors and fix them.
When they will affect existing code then you need to devise a strategy on a case by case basis. Since there is no rollback you need your own backout plan and you need to test it thoroughly.
Since it is case-by-case there is not a lot that I can offer in the way of help for your particular situation.