what's wrong with this query?

allrecords

$query = "(SELECT * FROM ibf_topics WHERE forum_id='13' LIMIT 5) UNION (SELECT * FROM ibf_posts WHERE topic_id='$tid' LIMIT 1)";
$result = mysql_query($query)
			or die ("Couldn't exexcute query.");

I'm trying to get it to draw info from two tables at once. Please let me know what I'm doing wrong. (I tried it without parentheses too.)

LordShryku

Use [man]mysql_error[/man] to find out what's wrong.

ahundiak

UNION usually only makes sense when the two queries return the same type of columns. And since ibf_topics and ibf_posts probably have different structures then UNION will probably not do what you want.

I am guessing that you really want to join the two tables and query for records with a forum_id of 13 and topic_id of $tid. Completely different syntax.

allrecords

OK, what about now?

$query = "SELECT * FROM ibf_topics, ibf_posts WHERE ipf_topics.forum_id='13' AND ipf_posts.topic_id=ipf_topics.tid LIMIT 5";
    $result = mysql_query($query) or die("<b>A fatal MySQL error occured</b>.\n<br />Query: " . $query . "<br />\nError: (" . mysql_errno() . ") " . mysql_error());

The error works so don't worry about that. However it tells me that:

A fatal MySQL error occured.
Query: SELECT * FROM ibf_topics, ibf_posts WHERE ipf_topics.forum_id='13' AND ipf_posts.topic_id=ipf_topics.tid LIMIT 5
Error: (1109) Unknown table 'ipf_topics' in where clause

I double and triple checked that ipf_topics is the name of the table in the database.

LordShryku

Eh?

Query: SELECT * FROM ibf_topics, ibf_posts WHERE ipf_topics.forum_id='13' AND ipf_posts.topic_id=ipf_topics.tid LIMIT 5

You use b, then p....

allrecords

Wow all those years of schoolin' paid off. Thanks.