Looking for a Look-up method 1

[kupe]

Table Correspondence contains the letters. Table Correspondents contains the names of those who have written the correspondence.

How can I use the Correspondents – the letter-writers – as a look-up table, please?

Then '1' in the Correspondence table would be 'Joe Bloggs' in the letter-writers table, and '2' in the Correspondence table would be 'Anthony Blair' in
the letter-writers table, please Gurus?

 

[TonyGroves]

How about something like:
[tt]
SELECT l.*,w.name
FROM
correspondence l
LEFT JOIN correspondents w ON l.writer=w.id
[/tt]
where the Correspondence table's "writer" field contains the writer's id number, and the Correspondents table contains the field "id" and "name".

 

[kupe]

Many thanks, Tony, only the clock is whizzing past and I am not grasping this. Sorry.

Actually, I have a table 'Post' and one 'LWriters'. LWriters has the name of each letterwriter with an id.

Post has just the letterwriterid to tell us which is from whom.

I want to be able to join the two in a query. But, it doesn't want to go. Any hints (polite ones) please?

 

[TonyGroves]

Unless I'm missing something, you would just have to change the table and field names:
[tt]
SELECT p.*,w.name
FROM
post p
LEFT JOIN lwriters w ON p.letterwriterid=w.id
[/tt]

 

[kupe]

Oops, I think I might have been.

Much obliged.

(I have all your replies in a notebook. I wonder if your ears burn at all hours of the day and the night. Your name is - almost - perpetually associated with my mysql. Really very grateful for your help.)

 

[TonyGroves]

No trouble. Researching solutions to other people's problems is educational for me as well; I keep discovering new ways to improve my own systems.

 

[kupe]

Long may it be so! All the best.