I'm not sure of the field you're adding but


SELECT SUM(sum_field_to_be_added),cars_id,etc FROM `cars` JOIN `bills` ON cars.id=bills.car_id WHERE cars.make="$userchoice" GROUP BY cars.id ORDER BY cars.year DESC

MySQL Tutorial - Sum has a good example

Or you may need to use a DISTINCT specifier if you don't want to same the same identical cost. See Select UNIQUE or DISTINCT MySQL/PHP Queries | NewSourceMedia Blog for an example.

what if I was to set an array first off the bills then spit them out according to the car.id or am I thinking this too far

Use GROUP BY and WITH ROLLUP, will do exactly what you're wanting.

MySQL :: MySQL 5.0 Reference Manual :: 11.15.2 GROUP BY Modifiers

ok so running this in mysql phpadmin SELECT car_id, SUM(cost) FROM bills GROUP BY car_id

returns the bills added up as desired - associated with the car_id

PROBLEM now is I need to spit this data out with the year, make, model, VIN, kms, color and TOTAL COST

the rest this data is stored in cars while bills obviously housing the bills ... tried a few variations of adding a join statment in with that but from what I can see bills associated the ID with car_id and cars is just id

so saying something like group by id isn't a true statement I'm almost ready to give up and just make seperate queries grab what I need and combine the data??

ok lemme give that a shot...

Steve would this work to add the fact that I want to limit the results to $userchoice regarding MAKE

SELECT cars.*, bills.car_id, SUM(bills.cost) FROM cars, bills WHERE cars.id=bills.car_id && cars.make=honda GROUP BY cars.year ORDER BY cars.year DESC

this in return what I want is too have the user select a make - honda, kia, ext ext and list out all the vehicles we have that meet that make and spit out the data.. appreciate all the help steve

PS: I tried this query as I have it and no it dont work says colum honda don't exsit

for the record I even tried an AND to ask for only those records that are cars.make=`$userchoice` that still returns an invalid colum I ensure cars.make is there

Surround the text data with ' not `. Surround the tables and columns with ` and not '.

Here is your query fully delimited as MySQL likes it. Fully delimiting the tables and columns ensures that if your table or column is a SQL reserved word that query still will work.

SELECT `cars`.*, `bills`.`car_id`, SUM(`bills`.`cost`) FROM `cars`, `bills` WHERE `cars`.`id`=`bills`.`car_id` && `cars`.`make`='honda' GROUP BY `cars`.`year` ORDER BY `cars`.`year` DESC

I would also suggest an alias name for your SUM as in

SELECT `cars`.*, `bills`.`car_id`, SUM(`bills`.`cost`) AS "cost" FROM `cars`, `bills` WHERE `cars`.`id`=`bills`.`car_id` && `cars`.`make`='honda' GROUP BY `cars`.`year` ORDER BY `cars`.`year` DESC

Notice the " which is even another delimiter.

Got it made a few changes and works like a dream.... THANK YOU soo much for your efford in helping me!

heres what worked Removed the "" from AS "cost" to `cost` I was getting error other way..

here full query that worked..

SELECT `cars`.*, `bills`.`car_id`, SUM(`bills`.`cost`) AS `cost` FROM `cars`, `bills` WHERE `cars`.`id`=`bills`.`car_id` && `cars`.`make`='$userchoice' GROUP BY `cars`.`id` ORDER BY `cars`.`year` DESC

So what worked was chaning also the GROUP BY to cars.year gave me one copy of all vehicle with a SUM total cost...

again thanks soo much

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