Search SQL query from multiple tables MySQL

Question

I am trying to perform search on multiple tables.

I will simplify problem and say that I have 2 tables Worker and Customer both have Id, Name, Surname and Worker has additional Position, all fields are varchar except Id which is Int.

How to make a query that will return rows of either Customer or Worker, where one of theirs fields contains entered search string.

I have tried with joins but I got returned joined row also.

Answer 1

select id,name,surname,position,'worker' as tbl from worker where ..
union all
select id,name,surname,'','customer' from customer where ...

In this way you can even know results what table belong to.

Answer 2

Just UNION both queries.
If you really can JOIN those two, you can use an IF statement in the SELECT clause to show the right field.
But, from what I understand from your question, go with UNION