PHP mySQL JOIN with matching column names - php

Question

Noticed a rather large problem. When I join two tables togeter the fact that there is a column called ID in both of them causes the wrong tables ID to be used in a PHP equasion later on.
The simple solution would be to change the column name, but there are other standards thoughout the database too including columns called name in every table and title in many of them.
Is there a way around this or should I rename the entire database to ensure that there are no duplicate columns.
THE CODE FOR REFERENCE
$criteria = "SELECT *
FROM voting_intention,electors
WHERE voting_intention.elector = electors.ID
AND electors.postal_vote = 1
AND voting_intention.date = (select MAX(date)
from voting_intention vote2
where voting_intention.elector = vote2.elector)
AND electors.telephone > 0"
function get_elector_phone($criteria){
$the_elector = mysql_query("SELECT * $criteria"); while($row = mysql_fetch_array($the_elector)) {
return $row['ID']; }

Answer 1

While "Gunnx" solution is perfectly acceptable, I'd like to present an alternative since you appear to be using only the ID column of the result.
SELECT
electors.ID
FROM
voting_intention,electors
....

Answer 2

I wrote this function to assist in doing this. Basically it prepends the table name to the fields name of an associated array.
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($the_elector))
{
return $row['ID'];
}
would become
while($row = mysql_fetch_table_assoc($the_elector))
{
return $row['voting_intention.ID'];
}
function:
function mysql_fetch_table_assoc($resource)
{
// function to get all data from a query, without over-writing the same field
// by using the table name and the field name as the index
// get data first
$data=mysql_fetch_row($resource);
if(!$data) return $data; // end of data
// get field info
$fields=array();
$index=0;
$num_fields=mysql_num_fields($resource);
while($index<$num_fields)
{
$meta=mysql_fetch_field($resource, $index);
if(!$meta)
{
// if no field info then just use index number by default
$fields[$index]=$index;
}
else
{
$fields[$index]='';
// deal with field aliases - ie no table name ( SELECT T_1.a AS temp, 3 AS bob )
if(!empty($meta->table)) $fields[$index]=$meta->table.'.';
// deal with raw data - ie no field name ( SELECT 1, MAX(index) )
if(!empty($meta->name)) $fields[$index].=$meta->name; else $fields[$index].=$index;
}
$index++;
}
$assoc_data=array_combine($fields, $data);
return $assoc_data;
}
?>

Answer 3

mysql_fetch_row will get the data as a numerical array