left join

[seby]

question.

i have two columns which hold two different id's, (id_1 , id_2) i do a left join to select the name of the id_1 on different table..

but how do i retrieve the name for id_2, since they are on different columns and you can only do one left join per table..

any ideas?

[swr]

You could do a second select to join on the other column.

Although, having numbered columns is usually not the way to go, especially when you're doing joins on them. You end up with exactly the situation you're in now. Most likely, you want to have a proper many-to-many association instead, which requires a seperate association table.

Google for "database normalization" turns up some nice tutorials:
http://www.google.com/search?q=database%20normalization