select values from multiple tables where value = X - mysql

Question

I'm trying to perform what I assume is a very simple query on a MySQL DB. Here's my table setup;
Table 1 - CMS_AccessLevels
accessLevel
titleColor
Table 2 - CMS_Users
userID
username
userEmail
userAvatar
userSignature
accessLevel
I've already got this query;
SELECT `titleColor` FROM `CMS_AccessLevels` WHERE `accessLevel` = (SELECT `accessLevel` FROM `CMS_Users` WHERE `userID` = 3)
This works correctly and returns the correct titleColor value based on the accessLevel matching across both tables.
Now, what I want to do is also grab some of the values from CMS_Users as well. For the sake of simplicity, let's assume I want to grab only a few of the values, so my result set might look something like this;
userID|username|userAvatar|accessLevel|titleColor
-------------------------------------------------
0 |Scott |image.png | 6 |#FFFFFF
or as a PHP Array (shown just so you can see the logical layout if the above table didn't make sense);
array('userID' => $result['userID'],
'username' => $result['username'],
'userAvatar' => $result['userAvatar'],
'accessLevel' => $result['accessLevel'],
'titleColor' => $result['titleColor'];
Let's say I want to get userID, userName, userAvatar and accessLevel from CMS_Users, and titleColor from CMS_AccessLevels where CMS_Users.userID is equal to '3', remembering that CMS_AccessLevels.accessLevel and CMS_Users.accessLevel MUST match.
Realistically, the only piece of data I know before running the query is userID.
Is it possible to do this with a single query?

Answer 1

Try this:
SELECT u.userID, u.username, u.userAvatar, u.accessLevel, al.titleColor
FROM CMS_AccessLevels al
INNER JOIN CMS_Users u
ON u.accessLevel = al.accessLevel
WHERE u.userID = 3

Answer 2

You are using subqueries whereas joins will be the right choice. You might try something like
SELECT a.titleColor AS titleColor, u.username AS username FROM CMS_users u INNER JOIN CMS_AccessLevels a ON u.accessLevel = a.accessLevel WHERE u.userID = '3'