Question

I have two tables

[series]
--------------
ID | ART
--------------
1  | sculptor      
2  | painter
3  | writer
--------------


[artists]
--------------
NAME | ART_IDs
--------------
john | 1
jack | 1,2
jill | 2,1
jeff | 3,1

which I want to join like this:

SELECT se.art, ar.name as artist
FROM series AS se
INNER JOIN artists AS ar ON (se.id IN (ar.art_ids))

What I get is only the first values:

[result]
-------------------
ART      | ARTISTS
-------------------
sculptor | john
sculptor | jack
painter  | jill
writer   | jeff

Instead of:

[result]
-------------------
ART      | ARTISTS
-------------------
sculptor | john
sculptor | jack
sculptor | jill
sculptor | jeff
painter  | jack
painter  | jill
writer   | jeff

Normally I would do this with a third table with the links pe.id<->se.id. But another table is quite complicated to maintain in my framework.

Answer 1

As mentioned above the best option is to fix your table structure, its best to do it now while you have the chance. As the data grows it will start causing a lot of headaches. However if you know what you are doing, i think this will get you what you want in the short term:

SELECT se.art, ar.name as artist
FROM series AS se
JOIN artists AS ar ON FIND_IN_SET(se.id , ar.art_ids) > 0