Don't understand (left?) join

[tikal]

MySQL 3.23.54

table: article
columns: approved, articleID(k), pageID

table: picture
Columns: pictureID(k), articleID(fk), filename

Each article can have none or many pictures. I need to get the 'articleTxt' for all 'approved' articles for a particular 'pageID' regardless of if it has a picture or not. Where there is an associated picture (article.articleID=picture.articleID) I need the 'picture.filename'. So, I presumably need to use a left join?

I've read a couple of articles (devshed) and some of the posts on this forum but I just dont seem to get it (left joins that is).

The query I tried is:

SELECT article.articleTxt, picture.filename
FROM article, picture
LEFT JOIN article ON article.articleID=picture.articleID
WHERE article.approved ='y' and article.pageID='home'

Thanks for any help.

[pete_bisby]

Almost got it. The LEFT JOIN was correct, the problem was with the format of the FROM statement in your query:

SELECT article.articleTxt, picture.filename
FROM article LEFT JOIN picture ON article.articleID = picture.articleID
WHERE article.approved = 'y' AND article.pageID = 'home';

The JOIN always appears between the two tables you wish to connect together. This is the same for RIGHT JOIN, which is the same as a LEFT JOIN but reversed, and for INNER JOIN.

[tikal]

Cheers 😃

Resolved (link not working)