MySQL: fetch a row and multiple related rows - possible? - php

Question

Let's say I have one table: "cars" with 3 fields: id, brand, cost.
There's a second table: "models" with 3 fields: id, brand, model_name.
Each "cars" row can have multiple related "models" rows.
Is it possible to do an sql-select whose output looks like this?
edit: I use PHP for the database querys
array(
[0] => array(
[id] => 1
[brand] => mercedes
[cost] => 1000
[models] => array(
[0] => array(
[id] => 1
[brand] => mercedes
[model_name] => slk
)
[1] => array(
[id] => 2
[brand] => mercedes
[model_name] => clk
)
[2] => array(
[id] => 3
[brand] => mercedes
[model_name] => whatever
)
)
)
)

Answer 1

You need to add a foreign key relation to the models table, say car_id. Then:
SELECT * FROM cars JOIN models ON car_id = models.id;
This will output something similar to what you are looking for.
Assuming you are using PHP, using the output:
$query= "SELECT * FROM cars JOIN models ON car_id = models.id";
$r= #mysqli_query($dbc, $query);
while ($row= mysqli_fetch_array($r, MYSQLI_ASSOC)) {
$carstuff['id']=$row[id];
$carstuff['brand']=$row[brand];
$carstuff['cost']=$row[cost];
$carstuff[$row['models']][]=$row['model_name'];
}
var_dump($carstuff);
Note, that the id, brand and cost are repeatedly overwritten, but that is okay because they are overwritten with the same information. I'm not too sure about the cleanliness of the code, but that is the basic idea.

Answer 2

Try this:
Query:
SELECT c.ID, c.brand,c.cost, GROUP_CONCAT(model_name SEPARATOR '","') as models
, GROUP_CONCAT(m.ID SEPARATOR ',') as MID
, GROUP_CONCAT(m.brand SEPARATOR '","') as mbrand
FROM cars c
LEFT OUTER JOIN model m
ON m.brand = c.brand
GROUP BY brand;
Output:
ID BRAND COST MODELS MID MBRAND
1 audi 1000 m11","m22 4,5 audi","audi
1 mercedes 1200 m1","m2","m3 1,2,3 mercedes","mercedes","mercedes
Now in your php code you can process the MODEL,MID and MBrand
(By using explode)
$modelArray = explode(" ,", $row["MODELS");
SQLFIDDLE