I wrote: > But I wonder if the implicit cross join syntax ("FROM peoples, companies") > should actually produce this error because the explicit cross join > works: > > SELECT p.lname, p.fname, p.job_title, p.company_nbr, p.email, c.company_name > FROM people as p > CROSS JOIN companies as c > LEFT JOIN companies ON c.company_nbr = p.company_nbr; On second thought it looks like that (companies as c LEFT JOIN companies) actually is the second FROM item. Adding parenthesis to the explicit cross join version gives the same error: SELECT p.lname, p.fname, p.job_title, p.company_nbr, p.email, c.company_name FROM people as p CROSS JOIN ( companies as c LEFT JOIN companies ON c.company_nbr = p.company_nbr ); So the comma in the FROM item list has lower precedence than the join operators. -- Erik