three table inner join with empty table for searching - php

Question

my database is structured as below
at present the character, groups and vault tables all have data. The games tables is empty however.
Is it possible to write an inner join on the games table that will allow for a php search box to get data from the other three tables even though the games table has no data in it?
Is there another way of doing this that I might not know about?
For example I want to write a php search script for a webpage that searches on the games tables. If a user enters 'Allistair Tenpenny', it will pull the data from the characters table and display it in the search page with the characters name and their history, same with if some one searches a vault it will display the data from the vaults table.
From what I have read of inner joins the data on each joined table must match for it to display. Is there another way to approach this?

Answer 1

No inner join is necessary to get the data you want. You can simply use php to use SQL to search the appropriate table based on the user input.
If there are multiple search fields on your page, just name the submit buttons differently, then have PHP check for the existence of each submit button's POST data from the form, then perform the appropriate search. An example form might be:
<form action="" method="post">
Search Character Name:<input type="text" name="charactername">
<input type="submit" name="charsubmit" value="Search">
</form>
<form action="" method="post">
Search Vault Name:<input type="text" name="vaultname">
<input type="submit" name="vaultsubmit" value="Search">
</form>
Your PHP code can then be structured as:
if (isset($_POST['charsubmit']))
{
$stmt = $db->prepare("SELECT * FROM character_table WHERE character_name = ':mydata'");
$stmt->bindParam(':mydata',$_POST['charactername']);
}
elseif (isset($_POST['vaultsubmit']))
{
$stmt = $db->prepare("SELECT * FROM vault_table WHERE vault_name = ':mydata'");
$stmt->bindParam(':mydata',$_POST['vaultname']);
}
$stmt->execute();
Using prepared statements like this is a good way to prevent SQL injection attacks, thus ensuring user entered data is NEVER put directly into a SQL statement.

Answer 2

Think about it yourself. There should be no redundant information in normalized relative database. All the data tables have a column history. It should not have redundant data, which you could use to identify rows in other tables, but a description of the record set in the own table. We don't know, what vault_number is for. All other tables might be connected to the vault table directly depending on your data structure. Only you know, what your intention building this structure has been.
Further more you have connected games to groups by a redundant column with the group_name. You should avoid any redundancy and give the groups an id. Then connect it to games by a foreign group_id key. Imagine what will happen, when there are 100 games in a group and you decide to rename a group or just want to correct a typo.

Answer 3

Instead of joining the tables why not try to add them to an array?
create an array with the elements you need to display (don't forget to add the same number of elements from all tables (not 3 from 1 table and 4 from the other)
query the first table and use add it to the array
query the the second table and add it to the array
continue adding the tables you need
display the array
Edit:
The array could consist of 4 elements:
vault_number
name
history
type (table it's comming from)
example query would be:
select vault_number, charactor_name as name, history, 'charactor' as type from charactor
select vault_number, group_name as name, history, 'group' as type from groups
You just continue adding this to your array and you can then display all results
Take into consideration what Quasimodo's clone explained about your db normalization and the approach given by Sgt AJ could go a long way.