Lets say I have a Database defined as create table Photos ( PhotoIdx Varchar(20), PhotograherIdx varchar(20), PhotoTypeIdx varchar(20), CameraIdx varchar(20) PhotoDate DateTime );
Create table Photographer ( PhotographerIdx varchar(20), Photographer varchar(50)); Create table PhotoType ( PhotoTypeIdx varchar(20), PhotoType varchar(50)); Create table Camera ( CameraIdx varchar(20), Camera varchar(50)); Therefore, a select to print the basic info would be: select Photos.PhotoIdx, Photographer.Photograper, PhotoType.PhotoType, Camera.Camera, Photos.PhotoDate from Photos, Photorapher, PhotoType, Camera where ((Photos.PhotograherIdx = Photographer.PhotograperIdx) and (Photos.PhotoTypeIdx = PhotoType.PhotoType) and (Photos.CameraIdx = Camera.CameraIdx)); The problem with doing this is that if any of the lookup indexes are null (such as Photos.PhotographerIdx, Photos.PhotoTypeIdx or Photos.CameraIdx) or point to a nonexistent record in the lookup table, the record will not be selected. So one has to use a left outer join. The problem is I can get a left outer join to work that links two table, but not more. So how woulds you construct the above select to use only left outer joins??? Thx, Terry -- MySQL General Mailing List For list archives: http://lists.mysql.com/mysql To unsubscribe: http://lists.mysql.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]