Getting Multiple Values from a table column into a repeating row - php

Question

I'm using Wordpress and I have to figure out how to get multiple values out of the same column and turn them into variables.
The last step is I just want the data to display in a table like so:
Bob Company1 <br>
Alex Company2
Instead I get either Bob Alex Company1 Company 2 or
Bob <br>
Alex<br>
Company1<br>
Company2
Here's two different versions I'm working with:
$sql = "SELECT meta_value as guest from wp_postmeta INNER JOIN wp_posts ON wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id WHERE post_type='guests' AND meta_key='guest_name' UNION SELECT meta_value as company from wp_postmeta INNER JOIN wp_posts ON wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id WHERE post_type='guests' AND meta_key='guests_company'";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
$NumberOfResults=mysql_num_rows($result);
if (mysql_num_rows($result) == 0) {
echo "No Guests yet... stay tuned!";
exit;
}
while(list($guest,$company)= mysql_fetch_row($result))
{
echo "<table><tr><td>".$guest."</td><td>".$company."</td></tr></table>";
}
or
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT meta_value as guest from wp_postmeta INNER JOIN wp_posts ON wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id WHERE post_type='guests' AND meta_key='guest_name' LIMIT 2 UNION SELECT meta_value as company from wp_postmeta INNER JOIN wp_posts ON wp_posts.ID = wp_postmeta.post_id WHERE post_type='guests' AND meta_key='guests_company'");
$i = 1;
while ($get = mysql_fetch_array($sql))
{
echo '<table><tr><td>'.$get["guest"].'</td><td>'.$get["company"].'</td></tr></table>';
$i++;
}
ANY HELP would be so appreciated!!! thanks!
Edit: In case anybody in the future wants to create their own widget using advanced custom fields in Wordpress, here's the final product more or less:
$sql = "SELECT p.ID AS post_id, g.meta_value as guest, c.meta_value as company, d.meta_value as date
FROM wp_posts p
JOIN wp_postmeta g ON g.post_id = p.id AND g.meta_key = 'guest_name'
JOIN wp_postmeta c ON c.post_id = p.id AND c.meta_key = 'guests_company'
JOIN wp_postmeta d ON d.post_id = p.id AND d.meta_key = 'show_date'
WHERE p.post_status = 'publish'
ORDER by d.meta_value DESC";
$query = mysql_query($sql);
echo '<table><tr><th>Guest</th><th>Company</th><th>Show Date</th></tr>';
while ($get = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {$newDate = date("m-d-Y", strtotime($get["date"]));
echo '<tr><td>'.$get["guest"].'</td><td>'.$get["company"].'</td><td>'.$newDate.'</td></tr>';
}
echo '</table>';
Really appreciated doublesharp's help on this.

Answer 1

If I understand your question correctly, you have to write the code to display table like this:
echo '<table>';
while ($get = mysql_fetch_array($sql))
{
echo '<tr><td>'.$get["guest"].'</td><td>'.$get["company"].'</td></tr>';
}
echo '</table>';

Answer 2

If the postmeta values are attached to different posts as indicated by the different 'post_type' values in your query, then you will need some other identifying information to link them together. If there is a single post_id that has both a guest_name and guest_company meta_value then you can join it twice to get the results. Using a UNION will always result in them coming back in different rows.
// Join the postmeta table to posts twice, once for each meta_key.
$sql = <<<SQL
SELECT p.ID AS post_id, g.meta_value as guest, c.meta_value as company
FROM wp_posts p
JOIN wp_postmeta g ON g.post_id = p.id AND g.meta_key = 'guest_name'
JOIN wp_postmeta c ON c.post_id = p.id AND c.meta_key = 'guests_company'
WHERE p.post_status = 'publish'
SQL;
// Execute the query
$query = mysql_query($sql);
// Start your table for output
echo '<table>';
while ($get = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
// Write the output of each row
echo '<tr><td>'.$get["guest"].'</td><td>'.$get["company"].'</td></tr>';
}
// Close the table
echo '</table>';
If this is inside Wordpress, I would recommend using the $wpdb object for your query.