SELECT data FROM two tables in MySQL

Question

What I have: The next structure:

table_zero
-> id (PRIMARY with auto increment)
-> other

Answer 1

By using UNION you may get several times rows with the same ID. What about using LEFT JOIN ?

If I've understood your question:

SELECT table_zero.id, table_1.varchar_field, table_2.varchar_field
FROM table_zero
  LEFT JOIN table_1 ON table_zero.id = table_1.id
  LEFT JOIN table_2 ON table_zero.id = table_2.id
WHERE table_1.varchar_field LIKE '%str%'
  OR table_2.varchar_field LIKE '%str%'

Answer 2

Try this

SELECT *
FROM 
(
SELECT table_zero.id AS ID, table_1.varchar_field AS field
FROM table_zero
  JOIN table_1 ON table_zero.id = table_1.id
WHERE table_1.varchar_field LIKE '%str%'
UNION
SELECT table_zero.id, table_2.varchar_field  AS field
FROM table_zero
  JOIN table_2 ON table_zero.id = table_2.id
) tbl
WHERE 
tbl.field LIKE '%str%'

Answer 3

SELECT table_zero.id, table_1.varchar_field, table_2.varchar_field
FROM table_zero
  LEFT JOIN table_1 ON table_zero.id = table_1.id
  LEFT JOIN table_2 ON table_zero.id = table_2.id
WHERE table_1.varchar_field LIKE '%str%'
  OR table_2.varchar_field LIKE '%str%'