Retrieving data from two tables, to view statuses and wallposts as on facebook

[Fenhopi]

I have one table called statuses(status, dtime, byuser), and one called wallposts(message, byuser, touser, dtime).

 

I want to show statuses and wallposts on my wall, and I want them to sort by date.

I need to be able to distinguish between what's a wallpost and what's a status, seeing as wallposts has a byuser.

 

I'd appreciate help on how I'd go about doing this.

 

What I have found so far, is:

SELECT * FROM (
    SELECT 'Status' AS what, Status AS StatusOrMessage, byuser, 'n/a' AS touser, dtime FROM statuses 
    UNION 
    SELECT 'Message', Message, byuser, touser, dtime FROM Wallposts 
ORDER BY dtime DESC LIMIT 20

 

But I'm not quite sure it's right, seeing as I don't quite understand the query.

 

Thank you in advance!

[fenway]

That isn't a valid query -- but the UNION approach should work.

[Fenhopi]

Why isn't it a valid query?

[Mchl]

Because you have one '(' but none ')'