MYSQL/PHP Get values from JOIN of same column name

Question

SELECT admin.User, a.time

FROM admin 

LEFT JOIN a ON admin.User=a.User

LEFT JOIN b ON admin.User=a.User

So I have three tables, admin then a & b. At the moment I get tables a & b by joining via a shared field called User. However tables a & b have a field called 'types' which is not in the admin table.

What I want to do is instead of select 'types' twice - once for table a and once for table b, is have the 'types' field combined so there is only one results set for that field.

Answer 1

try to use ifnull(a.types, b.types) as types to export the field. (MySQL)

so that it try to get a.types first, if that yields null, then yields b.types instead.