Question

I cant find good solution to get information from other mysql tables when I have Main table (PC) which are connected to other tables (cpu, ram, hdd..). In PC table there is other components IDs (cpu, ram, hdd..).

There is the code which I am using:

<?php
$query="SELECT * FROM pc ORDER by id";
mysql_query("SET NAMES 'UTF8'");
$result = mysql_query ($query);
$i=1;
echo '<table border = "1">';
echo '<tr><td><b>Nr.</b></td><td><b>CPU:</b></td><td><b>RAM</b></td><td><b>HDD</b></td><td><b>MB</b></td><td><b>GPU</b></td><td><b>Monitor</b></td></tr>';
while($nt=mysql_fetch_array($result)){
$proc = $nt['proc_id'];
$ram = $nt['ram_id'];
$hdd = $nt['hdd_id'];
$mb = $nt['mot_id'];
$gpu = $nt['gpu_id'];
$mon = $nt['monit_id'];

echo '<tr><td><b>'.$i++.'.</b></td><td>'.$proc.'</td><td>'.$ram.'</td><td>'.$hdd.'</td><td>'.$mb.'</td><td>'.$gpu.'</td><td>'.$mon.'</td></tr>';

}
echo '</table>';
?>

_______________________________
|Nr.  CPU  RAM  GPU HDD MONITOR |
| 1    1     2    1   2     2   |
---------------------------------

I’m getting the list of parts ID numbers, but instead of this I need to print real names of these components which is in other tables,not IDs. So my question is how to use IDs which are in PC table to get item name containing that ID. For example:

________________________________________________________
|Nr.  CPU        RAM      GPU        HDD     MONITOR    |
| 1  Intel    2gb adata    GTX 460   WD 1tb     LCD..   |
---------------------------------------------------------

Hope you understood my question, thanks.

Answer 1

change:

SELECT * 
FROM pc 
ORDER by id

to something like

SELECT * 
FROM PC 
LEFT JOIN RAM on PC.Ram_ID = Ram.ID
LEFT JOIN GPU on PC.GPUID = GPU.ID
...
ORDER BY PC.ID

For an improved understanding of Joins see http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/10/a-visual-explanation-of-sql-joins.html