Duplicated Results on SQL Query - php

Question

PHP newbie here! I ve been struggling with this for a few days now and i have decided i cant figure this out on my own.
Basically i have 2 database tables "projects_2016" and "attachment".
I want to show the data of "projects_2016" to show in the top table and then check for a matching id number (and if it exsits) in "attachment" it will list all the results under the "project_2016 data".
At the moment it works great but it duplicates the "projects_2016" data for every "attachment" entry.
Here is my code, any input is appreciated!
PS not too concereded about Sql injections. Still learning that!
<?php include '../../../connection_config.php';
$sql = "SELECT DISTINCT * FROM attachment JOIN projects_2016 ON attachment.attachment_ABE_project_number = projects_2016.id ORDER BY `attachment_ABE_project_number` DESC";
$result = $conn->query($sql);
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
?>
<table width="20" border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2">
<tr>
<th height="0" scope="col"><table width="990" border="0" align= "center" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0">
<tr class="text_report">
<td width="107" height="30" align="left" valign="middle" nowrap="nowrap" bgcolor="#F5F5F5"><strong>PNo</strong></td>
<td width="871" align="left" valign="middle" nowrap="nowrap" bgcolor="#F5F5F5"><strong>Project Name</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="20" align="left" valign="middle" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" class="text_report"><strong><?php echo "<br>". $row["ID"]. "<br>";?></strong></td>
<td height="20" align="left" valign="middle" bgcolor= "#FFFFFF" class="text_report"><strong><?php echo "<br>". $row["project_name"]. "<br>";?></strong></td>
</tr>
</table>
<?php
$photo_id = $row["ID"];
$contacts = "SELECT DISTINCT * FROM attachment WHERE attachment_ABE_project_number = '$photo_id'" ;
$result_contacts = $conn->query($contacts);
if ($result_contacts->num_rows > 0) {
// output data of each row
while($row_contacts = $result_contacts->fetch_assoc()) {
?>
<table width="990" border="0" align="center" cellpadding= "3" cellspacing="0" class="text_report">
<tr>
<td height="0" colspan="4" align="left" valign="middle" nowrap="nowrap" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="319" height="30" align="left" valign="middle" nowrap="nowrap" bgcolor="#F5F5F5"><strong>File Name</strong></td>
<td width="279" align="left" valign="middle" nowrap="nowrap" bgcolor="#F5F5F5"><strong>File Type</strong></td>
<td width="315" align="left" valign="middle" nowrap="nowrap" bgcolor="#F5F5F5"><strong>File Size (KB)</strong></td>
<td width="53" align="right" valign="middle" nowrap="nowrap" bgcolor="#F5F5F5"><strong>View File</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="20" align="left" valign="middle" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><?php echo $row_contacts ['file'] ?></td>
<td height="20" align="left" valign="middle" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><?php echo $row_contacts ['type'] ?></td>
<td height="20" align="left" valign="middle" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><?php echo $row_contacts ['size'] ?></td>
<td align="right" valign="middle" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">view file</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td height="0" colspan="4" align="left" valign="middle" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"> </td>
</tr>
<?php
}
?>
</table>
<?php
}
?></th>
</tr>
</table>
<table width="1000" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
<tr>
<th height="26"> </th>
</tr>
</table>
<p>
<?php
}
}
?>
</p>
</table>
<?php $conn->close();
?>

Answer 1

$sql = "SELECT * FROM projects_2016
WHERE EXISTS (SELECT * FROM attachment WHERE projects_2016.id = attachment_ABE_project_number) ORDER BY id DESC ";