OK, let's keep it simple:
$sql = "SELECT u.*, up.prof_pic FROM users AS u INNER JOIN user_profile AS up ON u.id = up.user_id WHERE zip IN ({$zips}) ORDER BY surname, firstname";
SELECT u.* would be select everything from users?
Yes everything. I used ALIASES to shorten the sql code 'u' for 'users' and 'up' for 'user_profile'. There's really no need to do this, I could have left it like this:
$sql = "SELECT users.*, user_profile.prof_pic FROM users INNER JOIN user_profile ON users.id = user_profile.user_id WHERE zip IN ({$zips}) ORDER BY users.surname, users.firstname";
AS u and AS up define an abbreviation for the table name
So yes.
BTW: sorry the first example should have 'u.surname' and 'u.firstname' at the end - oops!
This is setting up the link on the 'common fields', usually "Primary Key = Foreign Key".
so:
users.id = user_profile.user_id
Setting up a JOIN clauses on three or more tables looks complicated, but they can be nested easily enough. There should be plenty of online examples (mysql online manual perhaps) of multiple JOINS.
Then I would just use one loop for the result set?
If you can get all the info into a single query, then yes, you have one recordset, so it should be possible to get everything from a single loop.
I have no idea about your table structures so I can't advise you w.r.t. to the query you should build, however, this page may help:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...imization.html
$res=mysql_query($sql);
while(mysql_fetch_array($res)){
$fname=$row['u.first_name'];
$age=$row['u.age'];
$id=$row['u.id'];
$pic=$r1['up.prof_pic'];}
This doesn't look right to me:
$res=mysql_query($sql);
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($res)){
$fname=$row['first_name'];
$age=$row['age'];
$id=$row['id'];
$pic=$row['prof_pic'];
}
As long as your fields have unique names, you don't need to specify the table in the array key. For ease, you can give non-unique fields aliases with 'AS' as well - it just tidies things up at the $row['fieldname'] end.
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