How to join more than 2 tables in MySQL? - mysql

Question

I have 3 tables i want to join all tables each other. But my 3rd table not working.
See my table -
users
id | username |is_active
----------|----------------|------------
1 | chinu | 1
2 | sradhanjali | 1
3 | User3 | 0
settings
id | user_id | public_msg_notification
----------|-----------|---------------------------
1 | 1 | 1
2 | 2 | 1
3 | 3 | 1
friends
id | user_id | friend_id | is_block
----------|-----------|---------------------------
1 | 3 | 1 | 0
2 | 1 | 2 | 1
3 | 3 | 2 | 0
Query
SELECT a.username FROM users a
JOIN settings b
JOIN friends c ON(a.id=c.user_id OR a.id=c.friend_id)
WHERE a.username IN('john','piter','rahul','sradhanjali')
AND a.id != '1' AND a.is_active=1
AND a.id=b.user_id AND b.public_msg_notification=1
AND c.is_block=0 GROUP BY a.username
I have run this query in my local only sradhanjali username fetched. But this user is_block=1 in the friends table.
I think My third table friends not working. I want to show that result those usernmes where is_block=0. In above data my output should be zero(0) But I am getting 1 record while execute above query.

Answer 1

We had a chat discussion and I think this question is not meant to be on SO for the most part. I did promise if I could figure it out I would try to provide some insight. At this point I think this is a correct approach, but it is very specific to this instance.
SELECT u.username FROM users u
JOIN (SELECT
IF(u.id=f.user_id, f.friend_id, f.user_id) as ids
FROM users u
JOIN friends f ON (f.user_id=u.id OR f.friend_id=u.id)
WHERE
u.id=$SOME_ID AND f.is_block=0) friends ON (u.id=friends.ids)
JOIN settings s ON (s.user_id=friends.ids)
WHERE s.public_msg_notification=1 AND u.is_active=1
GROUP BY friends.ids
By trying to be too specific you aren't able to open up the query any more and have to do a nested query inside. This should get all users you are friends with THEN see which users are accepting public notifications and are active. I'm fearing this will fail. But this at the least will put you in the right direction.