Hello, I am having a problem with returning distinct rows this is probably a newbie question but here goes: Tables are artist, created_by and works the join is on created_by.work_id and created_by.artist_id A work of art can have two or more artists listed as creators in created by. In the inventory lists we don't care we only need one reference to each work AND (this is the part that hurts) they must be ordered alphabetically by the _first_ artists name. example: artist_name : title : inventory_number Bernadette Genée et Alain Le Borgne : Pièce à conviction : 004090101 Should be after "F" and before "H" But if I do DISTINCT ON inventory_number I must order by inventory_number then artist_name which totally defeats my purpose. I have also played with GROUP BY and HAVING which Clues much appreciated Tony Grant ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 9: the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not match