Here is another post on the same thing, with these two different examples I am getting different results and Im just wanting to know why

<?
// this ones outputs category_id and id as the same
$sql = "
SELECT * FROM `cms_news_blog_entry`,`cms_news_blog_categories`
WHERE
`cms_news_blog_entry`.`category_id` = `cms_news_blog_categories`.`id`
";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo $row['title']."<br />";
echo $row['category_id']."<br />";
echo $row['id']."<br />";

}
?>
<hr />

<?
// this one outputs the id from cms_news_blog_entry and the category id
$sql = "
SELECT * FROM `cms_news_blog_categories`,`cms_news_blog_entry`
WHERE
`cms_news_blog_entry`.`category_id` = `cms_news_blog_categories`.`id`
";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
echo $row['title']."<br />";
echo $row['category_id']."<br />";
echo $row['id']."<br />";

}
?>
<hr />

Because you have 2 fields named id in the query results. Most DBs will handle this by using "id" for the first field it comes across, then generate another name for the second one. You can avoid this with an alias:
SELECT *, cms_news_blog_categories.ID AS CategoriesID
FROM `cms_news_blog_categories`,`cms_news_blog_entry`
WHERE `cms_news_blog_categories`.`id` = ".$category_id."
AND
`cms_news_blog_entry`.`category_id` = `cms_news_blog_categories`.`id`
ORDER BY `timestamp` DESC

Then instead of
echo $row['id']."<br />";
use
echo $row['CategoriesID']."<br />";

Or better yet, just select the actual fields that you are going to output:
SELECT cms_news_blog_entry.Title, cms_news_blog_entry.Category_ID, cms_news_blog_categories.id

I've never done it this way, but my GUESS would be that the second ID can be accessed via an array? (Just a guess, like)

$id = $row['id'];
$id[0] and $id[1]

The alias is the preferred approach for accessing the associative values.

Usually what I do is access these by their index, mysql_fetch_array returns both the associative and indexed items in the array. To avoid being cumbersome, I have a function that stores the field names,

@first_fields = get_field_names('table1');
@second_fields = get_field_names('table2');

This may seem like overhead, but the arrays and their values are used to generate html table headers. Then step through inside the mysql while loop

$f=count(@first_fields); 
$s=count(@second_fields); 
$total_fields = $f+$s; 
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($results)) { 
 echo "<tr>"; 
 for ($i=0;$i<$f;$i++) { 
 echo "<td>" . $row[$i] . "</td>"; 
 } 
 // Note we SKIP the second id field by starting at $f+1 
 for ($i=$f+1;$i<$total_fields;$i++) { 
 echo "<td>" . $row[$i] . "</td>"; 
 } 
 echo </tr>"; 
} 

(Note: typed out for concept, might have errors . . . )

Though it appears to be working, you SHOULD be able to do this

`cms_news_blog_categories.id`

or even this, backticks are only required for names that conflict with internal data types, functions, or other reserved words,

cms_news_blog_categories.id

instead of

`cms_news_blog_categories`.`id`

Just a few less characters to debug.

Ok, thanks so much for all the info, this is exactly what i needed.

I learned that you can add an alias onto your query by doing

SELECT *, table1.id AS table1_id FROM `table1`,`table2`

And I also learned that it may be better to just specify exactly which fields you want to select instead of all *

SELECT cms_news_blog_entry.id,title,category_id

So lastly, rocknbil, what is the @first_fields , is that some shorthand? Also, my php installation doesn't recognize get_field_names(), is that because that is a function you have written

So lastly, rocknbil, what is the @first_fields

Ugh . . .my apologies . . . that is a fault of working in multiple languages, and switching between the two on various projects throughout the day. In Perl, @ is an array in that context . . . so

@fields = [array list of values] # perl

$fields = [array list of values] # PHP

Change those to $ for PHP. In PHP, @ precedes a function to quiet any errors the function may return, like

@mail('i am an invalid recipient and have missing parameters');

darn, i was getting excited