Problem with getting specific data based on several factors in MySQL - php

Question

I have a system where a user is part of a series of "runs", to each "run", can be added courses, teachers(users), classes and so on.
Each teacher(user) has chosen his/her classes & courses.
Here's a run-down of the tables I have that are relevant:
lam_run - The run in it self.
lam_run_course - Relational table that shows what runs has what courses
lam_teacher_course - Relational table that shows which teacher has which courses
lam_run_teacher - Relational table that shows what teachers are in what courses
What I want to do is show each teacher which runs that are relevant to them (based on which courses they have selected seen in lam_teacher_course) but in which they are not already participating.
Here's the MySQL code I have so far that does not work:
$query_relevant_runs = "
SELECT DISTINCT
lam_run_course.run_id
FROM
lam_teacher_course,
lam_run_course,
lam_run, lam_run_teacher
WHERE
lam_teacher_course.user_id = '1'
AND
lam_teacher_course.course_id = lam_run_course.course_id
AND
lam_run_teacher.user_id != '1'";
Instead this code shows all runs that are relevant, but it doesn't exclude the runs the user is already in..
What can I do to fix this?
Ps. Sorry for bad title, no idea what I should've called it :S
Here is a link to part of the databases (the relevant part): Link!

Answer 1

I think what you're looking for is:
LEFT JOIN `lam_run_teacher` `lam_run_teach_exclude`
ON `lam_run_teacher_exclude`.`user_id` = `lam_teacher_user`.`user_id`
...
WHERE `lam_run_teacher`.`user_id` IS NULL
The LEFT JOIN takes your current query, and appends the additional data to it. However, unlike the INNER JOIN you are using now (using the kinda-strange multiple-from syntax), the LEFT JOIN does not limit your resultset to just those where there is data for the righthand side. The righthand columns will be NULL. By filtering on that NULL, you can find all runs that are interesting, and for which there is not yet a relation to the teacher.
Does this help?
I'd recommend always using the normal join syntax (INNER JOIN target on target.id = source.id) - that way you're more aware of the idea that there are other kinds of join as well, and all your joins will look identical. It takes some getting used to, but definitely helps when your queries get more complex.
Also, in your cross-referencing tables, you can drop the primary key columns. If the only purpose of a table is to define a link between two tables, make the primary key consist of the two keys you've got. Unless you want to be able to related the same teacher to a run multiple times...
OK, took me way longer than it should have, but here's the complete thing:
SELECT
DISTINCT `lam_run_course`.run_id
FROM
`lam_run_course`
INNER JOIN
`lam_teacher_course`
ON `lam_teacher_course`.course_id = `lam_teacher_course`.course_id
LEFT JOIN
`lam_run_teacher` ON (`lam_run_teacher`.`run_id` = `lam_run_course`.`run_id` AND `lam_run_teacher`.`user_id` = 3)
WHERE
`lam_teacher_course`.user_id = 3
and `lam_run_teacher`.`run_id` IS NULL