sql - MySQL retrieve a maximum number of rows per distinct ID -

here's senario:

i have notes written people in table called notes. each note has person_id column identify note for.

i want retrieve last 5 notes written each person_id in table.

so rather retrieving notes , using php extract last 5 each individual, can in 1 simple mysql query?

thanks in advance!

update

a few people have misunderstood question. i'll try explain better.

let's have 20 notes in notes table. have 3 people in people table. names jim, sally , randle

in notes table, jim has 6 notes, sally has 9 notes , randle has 5 notes.

i want extract notes, limit 5 notes per person. out of 20 notes, want extract 15 of notes. 5 jim, 5 sally , 5 randle.

the below php , mysql example i want avoid - selecting rows table. when table gets 1,000,000 rows, that's lot of data process:

$notes_array = array();  $notes = $db->query("select person_id, notes notes"); foreach($notes $note) {      // create array person's notes     if (!isset($notes_array[$note->person_id]))         $notes_array[$note->person_id] = array();      // if person has 5 notes, not need anymore     if (count($notes_array[$note->person_id]) == 5)         continue;      // add note array     $notes_array[$note->person_id][] = $note->notes;  } 

select  a.*    notes  (     select  count(*)         notes b       b.person_id = a.person_id , b.autonumber >= a.autonumber ) <= 5 

• sqlfiddle demo

change autonumber auto incrementing field or datetime field taht can indicate how old record.