1052: Column 'id' in field list is ambiguous

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I have 2 tables. tbl_names and tbl_section which has both the id field in them. How do I go about selecting the id field, because I always get this error:

1052: Column 'id' in field list is ambiguous

Here's my query:

SELECT id, name, section
  FROM tbl_names, tbl_section 
 WHERE tbl_names.id = tbl_section.id

I could just select all the fields and avoid the error. But that would be a waste in performance. What should I do?

8 Answers

The simplest solution is a join with USING instead of ON. That way, the database "knows" that both id columns are actually the same, and won't nitpick on that:

SELECT id, name, section
  FROM tbl_names
  JOIN tbl_section USING (id)

If id is the only common column name in tbl_names and tbl_section, you can even use a NATURAL JOIN:

SELECT id, name, section
  FROM tbl_names
  NATURAL JOIN tbl_section

See also: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.7/en/join.html

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