title: Weird MYSQL results using PDO::FETCH_ASSOC without column alias
body: <p>I have a simple left join query.</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT e.employee_id as employee
  , e.badge_id as badge
  , e.first_nm as first
  , e.last_nm as last
  , e.work_phone as work_ph
  , e.mobile_phone as mobile_ph
  , e.manager_id as man_id
  , e.title_id as titl_id
  , e.username as user
  , e.start_dt as start
  , m.employee_id as memp_id
  , m.last_nm as m_last
  , m.first_nm as m_first
  , t.title_nm as titl_nm
  FROM employee e
  left join employee m
  on e.manager_id = m.employee_id
  left join title t
  on e.title_id = t.title_id
  WHERE e.employee_id = 1
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If I use column aliases as I have done above, the query works fine.  If I do not use aliases, however, some values do not get returned.  For example, the following returns a space if I do not give the column an alias.</p>
  
  <pre><code>e.first_nm as first      //returns "Robert"
  e.first_nm               //returns ""
  e.first_nm as first_nm   //returns "" (alias matches column name)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>In this same query,</p>
  
  <pre><code>e.middle_nm              //will return "P" 
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>regardless of whether it has an alias or not.  I'm baffled.</p>
  
  <p>I have given my tables aliases and I have used the table alias in the column names so there shouldn't be any ambiguous column names.</p>
  
  <p>Any thoughts would be appreciated.
  Thanks,</p>
  
  <p>Rob</p>