Question

I have a table with data like the following

id    name      created         parent
------------------------------------------------
1     Alpha     11385209583     0
2     Bravo     11385209619     0
3     Bravo-A   11385209701     2
4     Bravo-B   11385209777     2

such that Bravo-A and Bravo-B are children of Bravo.

There is another table with email addresses in it (accounts a JOIN emails e ON a.id = e.account_id), but only parent accounts have emails. That is to say, Bravo-A’s email is Bravo’s.

If I have the accounts.id number, is it possible to write a query that would give me the emails.email field for the correct account (where account_id = 1 when id is 1, account_id = 2 when id is 2, 3, or 4)?

(My apologies if this is a little verbose or not to the point, I was having trouble verbalizing it!)

Answer 1

Answered it myself!

SELECT a.id, e.email 
FROM account a 
         INNER JOIN emails.e 
              ON e.account_id = IF(a.parent <> 0, a.parent, a.id)

The thing I find with SQL is that there is always a more elegant way!