update mysql table using values from other table

Question

I have two my sql tables. Table A

reference   author   order_   first_name_initial   last_name
4222    13454091    13454091            null         null
4222    13454092    13454092            null         null
4222    13454093    13454093            null         null
4223    13454094    13454094            null         null
4223    13454095    13454095            null         null

Table B is

0   first_name_initial  last_name
4222     H.             Abbaszadeh
4222     S. A.          Ebrahimi
4222     M. M.          Akhavan
4223     E. L.          Abel
4223     H.             Ackermann
4224     H.             Seidler
4224     Y. S.          Kagan

I need to bring values of first_name_initial and last_name from table B to table A, in the same order as they are in table B. It is safe to assume that the 4222 would occur 3 times in both table and so the 4223, and so on. How can I do that.

Answer 1

A simple join will give you what you need, and an order by

 select distinct a.*, b.first_name_initial, b.last_name
 from tablea a
 left join tableb b on a.reference = b.reference
 order by a.reference, a.order