How to combine results from multiple tables with different columns?

Question

I have several tables with different numbers and types of columns, and a single column in common.

+--------+---------+------------+-------------+
| person |          


        

Answer 1

this should be working fine:

SELECT * FROM `beards` b LEFT OUTER JOIN `mustaches` ON (0) WHERE  person = "bob"
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM `beards` b RIGHT OUTER JOIN `mustaches` ON (0) WHERE  person = "bob"

you don't have to handle the columns by yourself. the left and right outer join do this job. unfortunately mysql doesn't have a full join. that's why you have to do it this way with a union

SELECT * FROM `customer` b LEFT OUTER JOIN `charges` ON (0) LEFT OUTER JOIN `day` ON (0)
UNION
SELECT * FROM `customer` b RIGHT OUTER JOIN `charges` ON (0) LEFT OUTER JOIN `day` ON (0)
UNION
SELECT * FROM `customer` b LEFT OUTER JOIN `charges` ON (0) RIGHT OUTER JOIN `day` ON (0)

this is a local test i made