need simple join help

[LRW]

This has to do with mySQL 101. I know it's supposed to be super
simple, but I'm an idiot. I can't get my join to work (1st time I've
tried doing joins.)

I've read http://www.mysql.com/doc/en/JOIN.html, but I'm just not
groking it.
When I try to do the same thing, I can't "convert" one field into the
data from another.

Here's what I have. To test this concept I made two tables on a
database called db_join:

table: tbl_a
id a_name
-----------------
1 DnD
2 Spycraft
3 SG-1
4 Fading Suns
-----------------
-----------------
table: tbl_b
id game
-----------------
1 2
2 1
3 4
4 3
5 2
6 1
7 4
8 3
9 2
-----------------
-----------------

And here's the latest attempt at generating results:

$sql = 'SELECT tbl_b.id,game'
. ' FROM tbl_b'
. ' LEFT JOIN tbl_a ON game = a_name LIMIT 0, 30';
$RS = @mysql_query($s ql, $connection) or die("Couldn't query: " .
mysql_error());
while ($row_RS = mysql_fetch_arr ay($RS)) {
$block .= $row_RS['id']." - ".$row_RS['game']."<br>";
}

And the best I can do, moving fields and items around, is the
following echo of the $block:

1 - 2
2 - 1
3 - 4
4 - 3
5 - 2
6 - 1
7 - 4
8 - 3
9 - 2

What I want the final output to be is resembling this:

1 - Spycraft
2 - DnD
3 - Fading Suns
4 - SG-1
5 - Spycraft
6 - DnD
7 - Fading Suns
8 - SG-1
9 - Spycraft

What am I doing wrong? I just don't get it. If I can just get a
pointer, like "the broblem is in your WHILE statement," or "the
problem is in the SELECT part" or something like that, at least it
would narrow it down for me to figure it out.

I appreciate any advice!!
Thanks!
Liam

[Joshua Beall]

"LRW" <de**@celticbea r.com> wrote in message
news:3a******** *************** ***@posting.goo gle.com...

$sql = 'SELECT tbl_b.id,game'
. ' FROM tbl_b'
. ' LEFT JOIN tbl_a ON game = a_name LIMIT 0, 30';

I don't see anything wrong offhand, which makes me suspect that something is
wrong with the fields you are fetching themselves (i.e., they do not contain
the data they are expected to contain).

Do a structure and data dump (not of all the data, if there is a lot of it;
just enough to give us a feel of what those rows actually contain), and post
it here.

-jb

[Joshua Beall]

"LRW" <de**@celticbea r.com> wrote in message
news:3a******** *************** ***@posting.goo gle.com...

$sql = 'SELECT tbl_b.id,game'
. ' FROM tbl_b'
. ' LEFT JOIN tbl_a ON game = a_name LIMIT 0, 30';

I don't see anything wrong offhand, which makes me suspect that something is
wrong with the fields you are fetching themselves (i.e., they do not contain
the data they are expected to contain).

Do a structure and data dump (not of all the data, if there is a lot of it;
just enough to give us a feel of what those rows actually contain), and post
it here.

-jb

[Joshua Beall]

"LRW" <de**@celticbea r.com> wrote in message
news:3a******** *************** ***@posting.goo gle.com...

$sql = 'SELECT tbl_b.id,game'
. ' FROM tbl_b'
. ' LEFT JOIN tbl_a ON game = a_name LIMIT 0, 30';

I don't see anything wrong offhand, which makes me suspect that something is
wrong with the fields you are fetching themselves (i.e., they do not contain
the data they are expected to contain).

Do a structure and data dump (not of all the data, if there is a lot of it;
just enough to give us a feel of what those rows actually contain), and post
it here.

-jb

[bunnytail]

select tbl_b.id, tbl_b.game from tbl_b left join tbl_a on
tbl_b.game=tbl_ a.a_name