mysql union different number of columns

Question

I know union queries have to have the same number of columns. I\'m trying to get results from the table comments and results from the table strings

Answer 1

Another very dodgy way to get around the issue is to CONCAT_WS columns not shared between the tables e.g.

SELECT `r_id`, `r_added`, CONCAT_WS('###',`otherfield1`,`otherfield2`) as r_other FROM table1
UNION
SELECT `r_id`, `r_added`, CONCAT_WS('###',`otherfield3`,`otherfield4`,`otherfield5`) as r_other FROM table2

You can then programmatically reconstruct that data e.g.

$rother = explode("###", $row['r_other']);

Very bad way to get at this data but might get someone out of a fix. You could even change the separator e.g. #t1# #t2# search the string for that to workout what table the concatenated data is from.