php home posts system using Mysql - php

Question

This is my code to get there posts on their profile
<?php
$getposts = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM videos_content WHERE username ='$username' ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 10") or die(mysql_error());
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($getposts)) {
$id = $row['id'];
$video_title = $row['video_title'];
$video_url = $row['video_url'];
$date_posted = $row['date_posted'];
$added_by = $row['username'];
$get_user_info = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$added_by'");
$get_info = mysql_fetch_assoc($get_user_info);
$profilepic_info = $get_info['profile_pic'];
if ($profilepic_info == "") {
$profilepic_info = "./image/default_pic.jpg";
}
else
{
$profilepic_info = "./userdata/profile_pics/".$profilepic_info;
}
?>
My sql user table is like this
[id,username,followers,following,account_active]
-> My following and followers columns are arrays with comma separated values.
My sql posts table is like this
[id,username,video_title,video_url,date_posted,removed]
I want to display posts of people whom a user(i mean a logged in user) is following on his/her home page.
can anyone suggest me some solution ?
Thanks.
I tried this code
<?php
$followingArray = "";
$countFollowing = "";
$followingArray12 = "";
$selectFollowingQuery = mysql_query("SELECT following FROM users WHERE username = '$user' ");
$followingRow = mysql_fetch_assoc($selectFollowingQuery);
$followingArray = $followingRow['following'];
if ($followingArray != "") {
$followingArray = explode(",","$followingArray");
$countFollowing = count($followingArray);
$followingArray12 = array_slice($followingArray, 0, 12);
$getposts = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM videos_content WHERE username ='$username' ORDER BY id DESC LIMIT 10") or die(mysql_error());
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($getposts)) {
$id = $row['id'];
$video_title = $row['video_title'];
$video_url = $row['video_url'];
$date_posted = $row['date_posted'];
$added_by = $row['username'];
$get_user_info = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$added_by'");
$get_info = mysql_fetch_assoc($get_user_info);
$profilepic_info = $get_info['profile_pic'];
if ($profilepic_info == "") {
$profilepic_info = "./image/default_pic.jpg";
}
else
{
$profilepic_info = "./userdata/profile_pics/".$profilepic_info;
}
}
if (in_array($username, $followingArray) {
echo '(posts)'; /*html to echo those posts, its a very long chain of divs, that is the reason i didn't include that code.*/
}
else{
echo ''; /*nothing*/
}
}
?>

Answer 1

Firstly I would suggest splitting your users table into 3 tables.
users : [id,username,account_active]
followers : [id,followerId]
following : [id,followingId]
This will prevent columns with comma-separated values, and make your problems much simpler.
From there its easy:
SELECT *
FROM posts
WHERE id IN (
SELECT followerId
FROM followers
WHERE id = $userID
);
etc..