query experts: need ya

[Anon]

Could any of the query experts explain to me why this query:

$query="SELECT DISTINCT rfa.request.id AS requestid, rfa.request.date, rfa.request.type, rfa.request.status,
facultydb.faculty.firstname, facultydb.faculty.lastname, rfa.action.id AS actionid, facultydb.faculty.id AS facultyid FROM facultydb.faculty, rfa.request LEFT JOIN rfa.action ON rfa.request.id=rfa.action.request_id WHERE rfa.request.requested_by=facultydb.faculty.id AND rfa.request.status=1;";

is different from this query? (besides the word differences)

$query="SELECT DISTINCT rfa.request.id AS requestid, rfa.request.date, rfa.request.type, rfa.request.status,
facultydb.faculty.firstname, facultydb.faculty.lastname, rfa.action.id AS actionid, facultydb.faculty.id AS facultyid FROM facultydb.faculty, rfa.request, rfa.action WHERE rfa.request.id=rfa.action.request_id AND rfa.request.requested_by=facultydb.faculty.id AND rfa.request.status=1 GROUP BY rfa.request.id;";

[gio2k]

At first sight the difference lies in the LEFT JOIN. If you want to know more about the differences between a normal join (table1, table2) and a left join, just check the docu in mysql, www.mysql.com and search for left join.

-Gio-