Well there probably is a way, but here in Oz it's a monday morning, and that's way too difficult (perhaps after my third cup of tea...) My suggestion: just a tea-spoon of normalisation helps the medicine go down...in the most delightful way.--this/*declare @tblPhoto table (id int identity(1,1), Phototype nvarchar(50))insert into @tblPhoto (Phototype) values ('|A|B|')insert into @tblPhoto (Phototype) values ('|C|D|')insert into @tblPhoto (Phototype) values ('|B|C|')*/--becomesdeclare @tblPhoto table (id int identity(1,1), filepath nvarchar(200) )declare @PhotoType table (PhotoId int , typename nvarchar(5))--photosinsert into @tblPhoto (filepath) values ('C:\photos\photo1.bmp')insert into @tblPhoto (filepath) values ('C:\photos\photo2.bmp')insert into @tblPhoto (filepath) values ('C:\photos\photo3.bmp')--phototypeinsert into @PhotoType (PhotoId, typename) values (1,'A')insert into @PhotoType (PhotoId, typename) values (1,'B')insert into @PhotoType (PhotoId, typename) values (2,'C')insert into @PhotoType (PhotoId, typename) values (2,'D')insert into @PhotoType (PhotoId, typename) values (3,'B')insert into @PhotoType (PhotoId, typename) values (3,'C')--and this/*declare @tblUser table (id int identity(1,1), AccessLevel nvarchar(50))insert into @tblUser (AccessLevel) values ('|A|B|')insert into @tblUser (AccessLevel) values ('|C|D|')*/--becomesdeclare @tblUser table (id int identity(1,1), username nvarchar(50))declare @AccessLevel table (UserId int, levelname nvarchar(5))--usersinsert into @tblUser (username) values ('Mary Poppins')insert into @tblUser (username) values ('Doctor Dolittle')--levelsinsert into @AccessLevel (UserId, levelname) values (1, 'A')insert into @AccessLevel (UserId, levelname) values (1, 'B')insert into @AccessLevel (UserId, levelname) values (2, 'B')insert into @AccessLevel (UserId, levelname) values (2, 'C')--and your answer becomes something like select distinct a.*from @tblPhoto a inner join @PhotoType b on a.id = b.PhotoId inner join @AccessLevel c on b.typename = c.levelname inner join @tblUser d on c.UserId = d.idwhere d.Username = 'Mary Poppins'try that and let me know how you go...--I hope that when I die someone will say of me "That guy sure owed me a lot of money"Edited by - rrb on 09/15/2002 20:00:03