SQL to get friends AND friends of friends of a user

Question

My MySQL tables structure is like this.

USER
int id
varchar username

FRIEND_LIST
int user_id
int friend_id

For each friend relationship I inse

Answer 1

This is less efficient but readable:

SELECT friends.user_id, friends.friend_id, username 
FROM FRIEND_LIST friends, USER
WHERE USER.id           = friends.friend_id
 AND  USER.id = 1
UNION

SELECT USER.user_id, fof.friend_id, username 
FROM FRIEND_LIST friends, FRIEND_LIST fof, USER
WHERE USER.id           = fof.friend_id
 AND  friends.friend_id = fof.user_id
 AND  USER.id = 1

OR

SELECT user_id, f_fof.friend_id, username 
FROM USER, (
    SELECT f.user_id, f.friend_id
    FROM   FRIEND_LIST f
    WHERE  user_id = 1
    UNION
    SELECT f.user_id, fof.friend_id
    FROM   FRIEND_LIST f, FRIEND_LIST fof
    WHERE  user_id = 1
     AND   f.friend_id = fof.user_id
) as f_fof
WHERE USER.id           = f_fof.friend_id