Merge 2 tables

[TheBeginner]

Hi,

I have two tables that consist of artistnames. I probably have 80% of the same artist in tha tables and have to merge them.

Can it be done? And which is the best way?

[nemonoman]

create a new table merged

Then

INSERT INTO merged SELECT concat(if table1.artistname<>'', table1.artistname,table2.artistname) FROM table1 LEFT JOIN table2 ON table1.artistname=table2.artistname) WHERE 1

OR
$result1 =mysql_query("SELECT artistname FROM table1");
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result1)){
$artists[]=$row[0];
}
$result2 =mysql_query("SELECT artistname FROM table2");
while($row=mysql_fetch_array($result1)){
$artists[]=$row[0];
}
//lose the dups.

$uniqueartists=array_unique($artists);

foreach($uniqueartists as $name){
mysql_query("INSERT INTO merged SET artistname=$name");
}