mysql - Select from multiple tables without a join?

Question

What is the easiest way to select data from two tables and rather than join them, have them appear as separate rows. Both tables have similar or matching fields and I want to run some aggregate function on them such as avg all the rows that occurred in the same month, from both tables.

for example I have two tables, one that is shows transactions from one system and another with transactions from a different system. Is there a way to grab all the transactions from both tables as separate rows? if table 1 had twenty records and table 2 have thirty records, I'd like there to be 50 rows on the return.

Answer 1

You could try something like this:

SELECT ...
FROM (
    SELECT f1,f2,f3 FROM table1
    UNION
    SELECT f1,f2,f3 FROM table2
)
WHERE ...