Php multiple mySQL query - php

Question

is it possible to retrieve an array of data from more than one table within one query? For example , I am getting an array from table1, but I want to retrieve data from several other tables too:
<?php
$con = mysql_connect($hostname,$username, $password);
if (!$con)
{
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db($dbname, $con);
$today = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', time());
$today1DayAgo = date('Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime("$today -1 day"));
$query = "SELECT * FROM table1 WHERE omtr_date BETWEEN '$today1DayAgo' AND '$today'";
$result = mysql_query($query);
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo $row["omtr_page_view"]);
}
mysql_close($con);
?>
Thanks

Answer 1

Use Mysql Joins.
Here is an example:
<?php
// Make a MySQL Connection
// Construct our join query
$query = "SELECT family.Position, food.Meal ";
$query .= "FROM family INNER JOIN food ";
$query .= "WHERE family.Position = food.Position";
//Execute query
$result = mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
// Print out the contents of each row into a table
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo $row['Position']. " - ". $row['Meal'];
echo "<br />";
}
?>
More examples of mysql joins are listed here: http://phpweby.com/tutorials/mysql/32

Answer 2

You can use joins to do this:
E.g.
SELECT t1.*, t2.id, t2.someothercolumn FROM table1 t1 LEFT JOIN table2 t2 ON t1.id=t2.t1_id WHERE omtr_date BETWEEN '$today1DayAgo' AND '$today'
(Untested)
Might be worth reading up on them.. http://www.sitepoint.com/understanding-sql-joins-mysql-database/

Answer 3

If your tables have something in common, like 1 column of table1 is the primary key of table2, or any kind of a relation (like same column), you can use JOINS.
Otherwise you can use UNION as well, like
SELECT omtr_date1.a AS a1, omtr_date1.b AS b1 FROM table1 WHERE omtr_date1 BETWEEN '$today1DayAgo' AND '$today'
UNION
SELECT omtr_date2.c AS a1, omtr_date2.d AS b1 FROM table1 WHERE omtr_date2 BETWEEN '$today1DayAgo' AND '$today'
But both the select statements must produce same number of columns with same column names.
That will do you good.