Left join confusion

I have a normal query for the database and I was to do a left join. However, the data in this left join needs to be ordered first and only the latest values take (i.e. only one value taken).

I'm confused if I can include an order by for the left join and a where clause with it as well.

Would it be better to just have another query?

NO, you can only have one ORDER BY clause in a LEFT JOIN query.  You could maybe use a sub-query though, but we would need some database structure, data, and your desired results.

you can reference the fields that are grabbed from your join clause in the ORDER BY and WHERE clause

Could you give an example of this?.. because i'd have 2 where clauses: one for the main query and one for the left join..

post your query.. i assume you have the ON clause specified?

I haven't added the left join yet..

$query = 'SELECT id, first_name, last_name
					        FROM users
					        WHERE email = "'.$email_sent.'"';

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/join.html

read it, make an attempt, if you have issues write back and we will help

So far:

SELECT m.mind, id, first_name, last_name 
					        FROM users
					        LEFT JOIN minds AS m ON m.u_id = id
					        ORDER BY m.time
					        WHERE email = "'.$email_sent.'"

Do I need to put users as u and then use that as well?.. 

Okay, I've worked on it, and it's having the desired effect currently, but I want to check the query is doing what I hope it is:

$query = 'SELECT t.mind, m.id, m.first_name, m.last_name
											FROM users AS m
											LEFT JOIN minds AS t ON t.u_id = m.id
					       					WHERE m.email = "'.$email_sent.'"
					       					ORDER BY t.time DESC LIMIT 1';

So I want to collect data from the users table for that one user. And then I want to get the information from the minds table. In the minds table, each user has several rows and so I want to order them in descending order by their time and then take the first one and add it to the rest of the user data..

yes, the way you have it set up now..it will post the newest row..

Okay that's perfect, glad I got it, thanks

I believe you can just make that a JOIN instead of LEFT JOIN.  That way you will not get empty results from the user table.  Which could happen if an error occurs on INSERTion.

Yes, INNER JOIN.