Helen,

> select n.UserID, b.text from Bugs b
> left join Notifications n
> on b.id=n.BugID
> where
> ....
> and n.UserID = 'T'
>
> will restrict the result set to just those involving 'T'.
>

that's fine except i want to include all rows from Bugs so that the n.UserID
column returns null for any rows where there is not a matching row in
Notifications for that BugID.

> Pete,
> you're making this a lot harder than it is!

I keep thinking that and then i try my new query and still don't get the
result i'm after :)
which is something of the form

UserID Text
____________
T Bug1
<null> Bug2
T Bug3

thanks once again.

Pete