Codeigniter active record join with 3 tables - mysql

Question

I have 3 tables,
user - contains user_id | username | fullname | email etcc
user_profile - contains entry_id |user_id| profile_image_id| user_location etcc
user_profile_images - contains image_id| user_id | file_path | file_thumb | date etcc
When a user sign's up, all the details go to the users table, the user_id is also added to the user_profile table with the rest set default as NULL till the user add's some profile info.
I have a query in model_users to get all user's data from these three table and it goes like this;
$this->db->where('users.user_id', $user_id)->select('*')->from('users');
$this->db->join('user_profile', 'user_profile.user_id = users.user_id', 'left');
$this->db->join('user_profile_images','user_profile_images.image_id = user_profile.profile_image_id','left');
It work's fine only when the profile_image_id field in user_profile is not null, that is when the user has uploaded a pic. In the case where the field is null, the user user_id is not returned even when all the other data are returned.
I can see why this is the case, as my join query requires the field profile_image_id but currently my way around it was to set profile_image_id in user_profile as 1(default), which is the default image and has image_id as 1 and user_id as 0 as it's the general default image. But i still can't get over the fact that i need to update that query to make it less of a hack.
Do you guys have any ideas?

Answer 1

Try
$this->db->select('*')->select('users.user_id')->from('users')
->join('user_profile', 'user_profile.user_id = users.user_id', 'LEFT')
->join('user_profile_images', 'user_profile_images.image_id = user_profile.profile_image_id', 'LEFT')
->group_by('users.user_id')
->where('users.user_id', $user_id);
$query = $this->db->get();

Answer 2

When using join for tables you need your columns in all joined tables to have unique names. Either you add column aliases by AS syntax or just retrieve the columns you need. In your case the error is most probably due to the fact that user_id exists in all three tables. Hence the result is like you experience. user_id is retrieved only for the last occurrence and that is if your user has uploaded an image. I would alter the query someting like:
$this->db->where('users.user_id', $user_id);
$this->db->select('users.*,user_profile.user_location,user_profile_images.filepath'); // and other fields of interest...
$this->db->from('users');
$this->db->group_by('users.user_id'); // very useful for not getting multiple rows/user
$this->db->join('user_profile', 'user_profile.user_id = users.user_id', 'left');
$this->db->join('user_profile_images','user_profile_images.image_id = user_profile.profile_image_id','left');

Answer 3

Try This one.
$this->db->select("*");
$this->db->from('table1');
$this->db->join('table2','table2.id1=table1.id1');
$this->db->join('table3','table3.id1=table1.id1');
$query = $this->db->get();
return $query->result();