I've searched the web, the tutorials, etc. with no luck and have asked on MySql list with no luck and have even posted here with no replies. So, let's try again: I am trying to limit the search for books to only those that start with "A" (does not have to be case sensitive); but within that selection there may be a second author whose name may start with any letter of the alphabet. So, the real problem is to find if there is a second author in the selection of books and to display that name. My query shows all the books that begin with A: $SQL = "SELECT b.*, c.publisher, a.first_name, a.last_name FROM book AS b LEFT JOIN book_publisher as bp ON b.id = bp.bookID LEFT JOIN publishers AS c ON bp.publishers_id = c.id LEFT JOIN book_author AS ba ON b.id = ba.bookID LEFT JOIN author AS a ON ba.authID = a.id WHERE LEFT(last_name, 1 ) = '$Auth' "; Within the results there are some books that have 2 authors and now I have to find if there is a second author in the results and then be able to echo the second author. So far, I have not been able to figure out how to go about that. Do I need to do another query to find the second author or can it somehow be incorporated into the original query? Or can it be done with a UNION ? Please help. -- unheralded genius: "A clean desk is the sign of a dull mind. " ------------------------------------------------------------- Phil Jourdan --- pj@xxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.ptahhotep.com http://www.chiccantine.com/andypantry.php -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php