Search the results from a query - php

Question

I have a site where members can mark other members as 'a favourite'. User are able to search the members table in various ways and I want to show from any of the results that are returned whether or not the users returned are favourites of the current user.
This is some very simplified code I have been using to try and get this query to work but I just can't figure it out. Whenever I add 'GROUP BY' to avoid duplicate results from my LEFT JOIN the 'if' statement does not work. The 'if' statment does work however, if I omit the 'GROUP BY' but I get all rows from members table and the favourites table. Thanks.
$result = mysqli_query($db_conx, "SELECT members.*, user_favourites.* FROM members LEFT JOIN user_favourites ON members.id = user_favourites.fav_id GROUP BY members.id");
echo "<table border=''>
<tr>
<th>Firstname</th>
<th>Lastname</th>
<th>Email</th>
<th>A favourite of User</th>
</tr>";
while($row = mysqli_fetch_array($result)) {
echo "<tr>";
echo "<td>" . $row['firstname'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['lname'] . "</td>";
echo "<td>" . $row['email'] . "</td>";
if ($visitor == $userid ){
$msgs = "x";
}
else { $msgs = "0";
}
echo "<td>". $msgs. "</td>";
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
mysqli_close($con);
?>

Answer 1

I suggest to you, tu use 2 query's insted one. Simple query is a fast querys. If your site scale up, your query will be slow query and it cause performance problems.
Idea:
For one hand: SELECT FROM members, get all and put it inside array, key=member.id
$members[$row['member_id']]=$row;
On the other hand: SELECT * FROM user_favourites, and put it inside the previous array, refereced by the key fav_id use distinc if you have duplicates.
$members[$row['fav_id']]['favourites']=$row;
Perfect now you have all you need, an array with all information, iterate it.

Answer 2

JilianJ something like this:
<?
//Prepare
$all_users=array()
$query_users='SELECT * from user';
$query_favourites='SELECT * FROM user_favourites';
//Now I find all members information
$users=mysqli_query($db_conx,$query_users);
while($user = mysqli_fetch_array($users)) {
$all_users[$user['id']]=$user;
}
//Now I add favourite information to the users information
$favourites=mysqli_query($db_conx,$query_favourites);
while($favourite = mysqli_fetch_array($favourites)) {
$all_users[$favourite['fav_id']]['fovourite'][]=$favourite['fav_id'];
}
?>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Firstname</th>
<th>Lastname</th>
<th>Email</th>
<th>A favourite of User</th>
</tr>
<? foreach ($information as $key=>$item) {?>
<tr>
<td><?=$item['firstname'];?></td>
<td><?=$row['lname'];?></td>
<td><?=$row['email'];?></td>
<td>
<? foreach($item['favourites'] as $key2=>$item2) { ?>
<p><?=$all_members[$item2]['name];?></p>
<? } ?>
</td>
</tr>
<? } ?>
</table>
Good luck