Posting same data to multiple tables

[a4hiwayman]

Hi, a newbie to the forum and PHP coding.
I have two applications on one site that use PHP and MySql, one a bulletinboard and one a gallery. Both have separate login pages and registration forms. I am looking to use a single, more comprehensive registration form and login page for both applications. So visitors only have to register and/or login on the site once to be able to access both apps.

I have imported the tables from the one database in to the other so I now have a single database with multiple registration tables.
Unfortunately the tables have different names:

Table1 (Members)
password
no entry
email
added
status
displayname

Table2 (users)
user_password
user_nicename
user_email
user_registered
user_status
user_displayname

Would I be better off using the 'JOIN' (or similar) statement to link the tables or would the easier approach be to use PHP? within the form to post the input to the relevant fields in the two tables? I have also heard of something called 'switch'.

I am looking for any advice that would point me in the right direction as to the best method

Many thanks for your help in advance.
Gavin

[rincewind456]

Wouldn't it be a better idea to consolidate the 2 tables? With a query like

INSERT INTO table3 (t3_Password, t3_email, t3_added, t3_status, t3_displayname) SELECT password, email, added, status, displayname FROM table1

and the same type of thing for the table 2 data.
You could also add an ID column at the same time.