Multiple Tables

[paultaylor01]

Hi all.

 

I've got 2 tables:

 

Table A

Table B

 

Both tables contain different fields, together with a date field (which has the same name, call it datefield for arguments sake). The tables are not linked or joined in any way.

 

Is it possible to extract and list the contents of the 2 tables, combined, and sorted in datefield sequence?

 

Cheers

Paul

[php_dave]

I guess this is a mysql database - this question should really be in the mysql section.. but

 

 select a.*, b.* from tableA a, tableB b order by a.datefield, b.datefield ASC 

 

is that what you meant

 

Cheers

Dave

[fenway]

You don't want to join the tables in the mysql sense... you can to combine the result, with UNION.

[paultaylor01]

Thanks for the replies.

 

Forgive me ignorance, but I havn't used UNION before.

 

What is the basic syntax?

 

Thanks

Paul

[fenway]

( first query ) UNION ( second query ) ORDER BY ....

 

Make sure you have similar numbers of columns, and all the types match up.

[paultaylor01]

Thanks Fenway.

 

However, let's assume the 2 tables vary widely in terms of number of fields, field-types etc (as they do in this example). Table A has about 20 fields, Table B has about 5. The only 'common' field is the date field which is what I want the output sorted by.

 

I'm reading between the lines that UNION isn't applicable in this case? Is there any other solution?

 

Cheers

Paul

[fenway]

Well, you can specify a column list to match the # and type... but in your case, it sounds like you want them all? If so, you might have to get the "super-ordering" first just with id, table and date, and then feed that back... rather ugly.

[paultaylor01]

Or I could just combine the 2 tables into 1 - much easier!

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Paul