Connecting multiple tables

Question

I am trying to figure out the most efficient way to display data from multiple tables. Currently I have it set up all in one table as follow:
SELECT title, merchant, image, price, description, link_product,  shipping_info, tax_info, other_info, deal_expire, list_price, category_items, buying_instruction,DATE_FORMAT(date_created, '%m/%d/%Y %l:%i %p') AS 'date_created',DATE_FORMAT(date_created,'%W %M %d %Y') AS 'date_only'
FROM mylist
WHERE date_created > SUBDATE(NOW(), 3)
ORDER BY date_created DESC
I manually input all the value from mechant’s database. What I would like to do is somehow connect above table with merchant’s data table such that I can just put merchant’s name and product sku # and it will fill up above table with relevant information. Thanks

Answer 1

Thank you so much for reply. I am not sure JOIN will work as the table merchant is different for each merchant. my main table is mylist and other tables are the table from merchants . From what little I know I think here are my options.
1. I have created a form that I use to insert data. If I could add IF ELSE statement such that once i put the sku # and merchant_name It autofills rest of the field with the data from the merchant's table. This is what i Prefer but I don't have enough knowledge to insert php code for this.Here is the code for the form I have. Please note that I have not created field for SKU# or product id yet
<?php require_once('Connections/shoppingsite.php'); ?>
<?php
function GetSQLValueString($theValue, $theType, $theDefinedValue = "", $theNotDefinedValue = "")
  $theValue = (!get_magic_quotes_gpc()) ? addslashes($theValue) : $theValue;
  switch ($theType) {
    case "text":
      $theValue = ($theValue != "") ? "'" . $theValue . "'" : "NULL";
      break;   
    case "long":
    case "int":
      $theValue = ($theValue != "") ? intval($theValue) : "NULL";
      break;
    case "double":
      $theValue = ($theValue != "") ? "'" . doubleval($theValue) . "'" : "NULL";
      break;
    case "date":
      $theValue = ($theValue != "") ? "'" . $theValue . "'" : "NULL";
      break;
    case "defined":
      $theValue = ($theValue != "") ? $theDefinedValue : $theNotDefinedValue;
      break;
  return $theValue;
$editFormAction = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
if (isset($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'])) {
  $editFormAction .= "?" . htmlentities($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']);
if ((isset($_POST["MM_insert"])) && ($_POST["MM_insert"] == "form1")) {
  $insertSQL = sprintf("INSERT INTO mylist (title, merchant, image, link_product, price, list_price, other_info, price_price, dollar_sign, click_here, listprice_text, dealexpire_text, added_text, to_shop, price_note, description, shipping_info, tax_info, deal_expire, category_items, buying_instruction) VALUES (%s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s, %s)",
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['title'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['merchant'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['image'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['link_product'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['price'], "double"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['list_price'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['other_info'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['price_price'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['dollar_sign'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['click_here'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['listprice_text'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['dealexpire_text'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['added_text'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['to_shop'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['price_note'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['description'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['shipping_info'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['tax_info'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['deal_expire'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['category_items'], "text"),
                       GetSQLValueString($_POST['buying_instruction'], "text"));
  mysql_select_db($database_shoppingsite, $shoppingsite);
  $Result1 = mysql_query($insertSQL, $shoppingsite) or die(mysql_error());
  $insertGoTo = "insert-data1.php";
  if (isset($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'])) {
    $insertGoTo .= (strpos($insertGoTo, '?')) ? "&" : "?";
    $insertGoTo .= $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];
  header(sprintf("Location: %s", $insertGoTo));
mysql_select_db($database_shoppingsite, $shoppingsite);
$query_datainsert = "SELECT title, merchant, image, price, price_price, dollar_sign, click_here, listprice_text, dealexpire_text, added_text, to_shop, price_note, description, link_product, shipping_info, tax_info, other_info, deal_expire, list_price, category_items, buying_instruction,DATE_FORMAT(date_created, '%m/%d/%Y %l:%i %p') AS 'date_created',DATE_FORMAT(date_created,'%W %M %d %Y') AS 'date_only' FROM mylist";
$datainsert = mysql_query($query_datainsert, $shoppingsite) or die(mysql_error());
$row_datainsert = mysql_fetch_assoc($datainsert);
$totalRows_datainsert = mysql_num_rows($datainsert);
?><!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>datainsert-restricted page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form method="post" name="form1" action="<?php echo $editFormAction; ?>">
  <table align="center">
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Title:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="title" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Merchant:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="merchant" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Image:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="image" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Link_product:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="link_product" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Price:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="price" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">List_price:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="list_price" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Other_info:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="other_info" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Price_price:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="price_price" value="price" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Dollar_sign:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="dollar_sign" value="$" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Click_here:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="click_here" value="Click here" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Listprice_text:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="listprice_text" value="List price : $" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Dealexpire_text:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="dealexpire_text" value="Deal expire :" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Added_text:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="added_text" value="Added :" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">To_shop:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="to_shop" value="to shop for this deal" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Price_note:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="price_note" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right" valign="top">Description:</td>
      <td><textarea name="description" cols="50" rows="5"></textarea>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Shipping_info:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="shipping_info" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Tax_info:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="tax_info" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Deal_expire:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="deal_expire" value="Limited time" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Category_items:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="category_items" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right">Buying_instruction:</td>
      <td><input type="text" name="buying_instruction" value="" size="32"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr valign="baseline">
      <td nowrap align="right"> </td>
      <td><input type="submit" value="Insert record"></td>
    </tr>
  </table>
  <input type="hidden" name="MM_insert" value="form1">
</form>
<p> </p>
</body>
</html>
<?php
mysql_free_result($datainsert);
?>
2. Other option will be copy all of ther merchant's data in one table and than join that table with table mylist . I don't prefer this because the database with all the data from merchat will be too large
Thanks