PHP, MySQL Junction Table displays information incorrectly - php

Question

My tables are as follows:
person2: personID
validPositions: positionID, positionDesc
personPositions: personID, positionID
I want to be able to display a person with their multiple positions (some may only have one position) on one line. Example: Sierra's Positions: s1, s2
Currently it displays each position they have, however on different lines AND it repeats the last position in the database twice. Example:
Sierra's Positions: S1
Sierra's Positions: S2
Sierra's Positions: S2
$sql = "SELECT * FROM person2";
// LEFT JOIN validTitles ON personTitle.positionID=validTitles.positionID GROUP BY person2.personID";
if ($result = mysqli_query($connection, $sql)) {
// loop through the data
//create 4 columns for the table
$columns=5;
$i = 0;
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result))
{
// the % operator gives the remainder of a division of two values
// in this case, 0/4, this tells the table row to jump to a new row
// if there are already 4 columns in one row
if($i % $columns == 0){
//begin table row
echo "<tr>";
} //end if
echo '<td class="staffImage badgeText frameImage displayInLine">
<br>
<strong>'.$row["firstName"].'</strong>
<strong>'.$row["lastName"].'</strong><br>'
.$row["position"].
'<div id="openModal'.$row["personID"].'" class="modalDialog">
<div>
X
<h2>' . $row["firstName"] . " " .
$row["lastName"].'</h2><br>
<img class="floatLeft" src="images/staff/'.$row["imgName"] .'.jpg">
<p><strong>Hire Date: </strong>'.$row["hireDate"].'<br>
<p><strong>Major: </strong>'.$row["major"].'<br>';
//if the field "major2" (Double Major) is not null, display it
if($row["major2"] != NULL)
{
echo ' & '.$row["major2"].'<br>';
}
//if the field "minor" is not null, display it
if($row["minor"] != NULL)
{
echo '<p><strong>Minor: </strong>'.$row["minor"].'<br>';
}
//if the field "concentration" is not null, display it
if($row["concentration"] != NULL)
{
echo '<p><strong>Concentration: </strong>'.$row["concentration"];
}
**$sql2 = "SELECT * FROM personPositions LEFT JOIN validPositions ON personPositions.positionID=validPositions.positionID ";
if ($result2 = mysqli_query($connection, $sql2)) {
// loop through the data
while($row2 = mysqli_fetch_array($result2))
{
echo '<p><strong>Position(s): </strong>'.$row2["positionDesc"];
}//end second while**
} //end second if
'</div>
</div>
</div> ';
echo '</td>';
Any help is greatly appreciated, I am new to PHP and MySQL and unsure what to do!
SAMPLE DATA:
personPositions table:
personID 1 | positionID 11
personID 1 | positionID 22
personID 2 | positionID 22
personID 2 | positionID 55
validPositions table:
positionID 11 | positionDesc S1
positionID 22 | positionDesc S2
positionID 55 | positionDesc S3

Answer 1

Something like this should work for you:
SELECT p.personID, GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT positionDesc ORDER BY positionDesc) AS positions
FROM person AS p
LEFT JOIN personPositions AS pp ON p.personID = pp.personID
LEFT JOIN validPositions AS vp ON pp.positionID = vp.positionID
GROUP BY p.personID
Output:
personID | positions
----------+-----------
1 | S1,S2
2 | S2,S3
Demo here