Question

I have two tables. Each product could have one or more files. But each file must belong to one product.

**PRODUCTS**
ID     PRODUCT_CODE     DESCRIPTION
1      a1               small
2      a2               big

**PRODUCT_FILES**
ID     PRODUCT_ID       FILE_PATH     FILE_NAME
1      1                x.pdf         x
2      1                y.pdf         y
3      2                z.pdf         z

I want to have a table which includes

PRODUCT_ID, PRODUCT_CODE, DESCRIPTION, FILE_NAME(s), FILE PATH(s)

My query was;

$query = $this->db->query
("
    SELECT products.*,product_files.file_name
    FROM products 
    INNER JOIN product_files 
    ON products.id = product_files.product_id
    GROUP BY products.id
");

$i = 0;

while($row = $query->fetch_assoc())
{           
$details[]  = array
(
    'code' => $row['code'], 
    'description' => $row['description'],
    'file_name' => $row['file_name'],
    'file_path' => $row['file_path']
);
}

return $details;

And my php was;

<?php foreach($details  AS $product) { ?>
<tr>    
     <td><?php echo $product['code']; ?></td>
     <td><?php echo $product['description']; ?></td>
     <td><a href="files/<?php echo $product['file_path']; ?>">
     <?php echo $product['file_name']; ?></a></td>
</tr>
<?php } ?>

But with this query and php, product row is duplicating which product has more than one file like;

a1   small   x   x.pdf
a1   small   y   y.pdf
a2   big     z   z.pdf

And than i tried another query with same php code;

$query = $this->db->query
("
SELECT products.*,
GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT product_files.file_name SEPARATOR ',') 
AS file_name,product_files.file_path
FROM products 
INNER JOIN product_files 
ON products.id = product_files.product_id
GROUP BY product.id
");

And the result is;

a1   small   x,y   x.pdf,y.pdf (linked with x.pdf's path)
a2   big     z     z.pdf

Do i have to explode product_files cell now? If yes, please try to explain with a piece of code?

Answer 1

looks like you’re nearly there!

you just need to do a GROUP_CONCAT on the file_path as well;

SELECT products.*,
GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT product_files.file_name ORDER BY product_files.id SEPARATOR ',') AS file_name,
GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT product_files.file_path ORDER BY product_files.id SEPARATOR ',') AS file_path
FROM products 
INNER JOIN product_files 
ON products.id = product_files.product_id
GROUP BY products.id;

and, for safety, order the GROUP_CONCAT-ed file_name & file_path, so they’re in the corresponding order.

than you can explode file_name or file_path and loop through each array – to grab the file-path pairs (they’ll be in the same position in each array).