Substitution Using Multiple Tables

[hnovick]

Greetings,

I am a newbie and have searched endlessly for information on this topic. Although sure that I've missed relevant topics, I come to you with hat in hand to help me solve what is sure to be a simple issue.

I have category IDs in one table (tbl_users) and another table (tbl_categories) with both the category IDs from (tbl_users) and their corresponding category names. I have a search query now that is returning results from tbl_users, listing their category IDs. I need to convert those IDs to category NAMES by somehow substituting the category names from tbl_categories for the category ids which are contained in both tbl_categories and tbl_users.

[dagon]

select tbl_users., tbl_categories. from tbl_users
left join tbl_categories on tbl_categories.category_id=tbl_users.id

[hnovick]

Thank You for your prompt reply, however, that code simply returned two columns of matching category IDs without the category NAMES at all.

I think I should specify that there are multiple (up to 20) category IDs for each user.

Thanks Again,
Harris

[hnovick]

Here is some more clarification.

The ID #s contained in tbl_users are separated by commas. There are between 1-20 ID #s for each user, all contained within one field (called categoryID).

In tbl_categories, each categoryID has its own row and corresponding categoryName.

How can I query tbl_users for a user's categoryIDs and have the output display the categoryName(s) from tbl_categories?

Thank You for your time.