If we have one table like that
mysql> select * from user_mail;
+------------+-------+
| email | user |
+------------+-------+-
| email1@gmail | 1 |
| email2@gmail | 2 |
+------------+-------+--------+------------+
and the array table:
mysql> select * from user_mail_array;
+------------+-------+-------------+
| email | user | preferences |
+------------+-------+-------------+
| email1@gmail | 1 | 1 |
| email1@gmail | 1 | 2 |
| email1@gmail | 1 | 3 |
| email1@gmail | 1 | 4 |
| email2@gmail | 2 | 5 |
| email2@gmail | 2 | 6 |
We can select the rows of the second table as one array with CONCAT function:
mysql> SELECT t1.*, GROUP_CONCAT(t2.preferences) AS preferences
FROM user_mail t1,user_mail_array t2
where t1.email=t2.email and t1.user=t2.user
GROUP BY t1.email,t1.user;
+------------+-------+--------+------------+-------------+
| email | user | preferences |
+------------+-------+--------+------------+-------------+
|email1@gmail | 1 | 1,3,2,4 |
|email2@gmail | 2 | 5,6 |
+------------+-------+--------+------------+-------------+
