一个查询两个相似的表

Question

i have two similar tables with the same fields. One is named "input" and the other "product" Both have the same fields:

• id
• name
• qty
• unit
• price
• pic(fk - both reference the same picture table).

My first question is: How can I write a query to effectively return every item's details?

I use JSON to export this data

$json_data.='"rec'.$i.'":{"id":"'.$id.'", "name":"'.$name.'", "price":"'.$price.'", "qty":"'.$qty.'", "units":"'.$unit.'", "pic":"'.$pic.'"},';`. 

My second question is: How can i effectively reference all the fields from both tables?

NB: I don't want to put the two categories in the same table, say, item, with an additional field of category.

Just to rectify this: the join condition is (input.pic=pic.id and product.pic=pic.id)

Answer 1

If the tables have the same fields you can do a union query.

 SELECT * FROM table1
 UNION 
 SELECT * FROM table2

if they are similar as you say then you just have to select the fields that they have in common into both

 SELECT "table1" as source_table,id,name,qty,unit,price from table1
 UNION
 select "table2" as source_table,id,name,qty,unit,price from table2

note I added a source table so you could backtrack where you got it from .... cheers