multiple tables and correct select statement

Hello all, I receive an error of the following: The used SELECT statements have a different number of columns. Any help, pointers, tutorials are appreciated. Here are the two tables structure I am trying to pull from: Table 1 mysql> describe orders; +------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | id | int(255) | NO | PRI | | auto_increment | | ordernum | int(10) | NO | | | | | date | varchar(60) | NO | | | | | time | varchar(20) | NO | | | | | group | varchar(20) | NO | | | | | purpose | varchar(255) | NO | | | | | tracking | varchar(120) | NO | | | | | contact | varchar(255) | NO | | | | | eta | varchar(50) | NO | | | | | department | varchar(125) | NO | | | | | notes | varchar(255) | NO | | | | +------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ 11 rows in set (0.01 sec) Table 2 mysql> describe order_items; +-------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | id | int(11) | NO | PRI | | auto_increment | | ordernum | int(124) | NO | | | | | quantity | int(124) | NO | | | | | description | varchar(124) | NO | | | | | price | decimal(10,0) | NO | | | | | partnum | varchar(255) | NO | | | | | vendor | varchar(255) | NO | | | | +-------------+---------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ 7 rows in set (0.00 sec) And here is the statement I am using (PHP): $query = "( SELECT * FROM orders WHERE ( ordernum LIKE "$var\" OR purpose LIKE \"$var\" OR tracking LIKE \"$var\" OR contact LIKE \"$var\" OR date LIKE \"$var\" OR time LIKE \"$var\" OR eta LIKE \"$var\" OR department LIKE \"$var\" OR notes LIKE \"$var\" ) AND group = \"$group\" ) UNION ( SELECT * FROM order_items WHERE ( ordernum LIKE \"$var\" OR price LIKE \"$var\" OR partnum LIKE \"$var\" OR vendor LIKE \"$var\" OR quantity LIKE \"$var\" OR description LIKE \"$var\" ) ORDER BY ordernum )";