Please help me with a loop. (serious noob)

I usually try avoiding loops, but this time I can't.

<?
$disabledusrs= mysql_query("SELECT username FROM $tab[user] WHERE receiveletter='no'");
while($pullthem = mysql_fetch_array($disabledusrs)){


// pulls top 3 players
$gettop3 = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $tab[topguys] WHERE username != '' AND username != '$pullthem[username]' ORDER BY win DESC, played DESC, lost ASC LIMIT 3");


$keyr = 1;
$winner = array();

while($rowin = mysql_fetch_array($gettop3)){
$winner[$keyr] = $rowin;
$keyr++;

}
}
?>

PHP:

It was working before, but then I added another loop (the first one) and tried to connect them...

The point is that there are 2 tables. 1st one is users, second one is topguys. Both of the tables have data with the same usernames... I want gettop3 to pull only these usernames from table topguys where username != disabledusrs[username].

So it looks at one table and finds out where the user has receiveletter='no', then the other loop takes the username and skips all users with receiveletter='no'.

I did my best explaining the issue.

 

Dont go for loop. Just use inner join.

 

You can use subquery

SELECT * FROM $tab[topguys] WHERE username != '' AND username NOT IN(SELECT username FROM $tab[user] WHERE receiveletter='no') ORDER BY win DESC, played DESC, lost ASC LIMIT 3

 

I didn't know such thing existed! Oh boy, I've wasted so much time when I could just have used that trick. Thanks, I'm going to give it a try!

 

Okay, it works. THANK YOU.

It takes about 3 seconds to load on my local server to open up the page. Is that normal?

 

OK, I think I definitely need a new solution. it takes about 20 seconds to load on the production server... Plus the queries are probably killing the server. Any ideas guys?