Question

TABLE 1
id  time1   info
1   110 info1
2   120 info2

TABLE 2
id  time2   info
1   100 info3
2   130 info4

How could I pull data from both tables at once and order by time1 and time2 (same thing, but the fields have different names)

Expected result row ids:
1 // table 2
1 // table 1
2 // table 1
2 // table 2

Answer 1

You should use UNION JOIN queries, alias the common sorting columns (time1 and time2) to have the same name and sort the entire reunited result-set.

(SELECT id, time1 AS time, info FROM table1)
    UNION
(SELECT id, time2 AS time, info FROM table2)
    ORDER BY time

Unfortunately this means not being able to return different table structures per table. They Have to match regarding number of columns and such.

A workaround would be something like this:

(SELECT id, time1 AS time, info, extra_column FROM table1)
    UNION
(SELECT id, time2 AS time, info, NULL AS extra_column FROM table2)
    ORDER BY time