Frederick, > "Mary Stuart" correctly. But such a query also > seems to get results that contain only one > of the search_attributes. > e.g. a 32 "Peter Smith" who e.g. just has an entry > 24 32 "hair" "brown" (and no mice hobby) is also > found. > I need to get only results that match the search > completely. > I would be happy if you could help me again. > Thanks, Frederick
Oops. You are quite correct. Unfortunately, the query that you need is somewhat more complicated: SELECT people.people_id, people.name, people.address, people_attributes.attribute_name, people_attributes.attribute_value FROM people, people_attributes, ( SELECT people_id, count(*) as match_count FROM people_attributes, search_attributes WHERE search_id = 31 AND people_attributes.attribute_name = search_attributes.attribute_name AND people_attributes.attribute_value ~* search_attributes.attribute_value ) matches, ( SELECT count(*) as attribute_count FROM search_attributes WHERE search_id = 31 ) searched WHERE people.people_id = people_attributes.people_id AND people.people_id = matches.people_id AND matches.match_count = searched.attribute_count; This structure will also allow you to search for, say, 4 out of 5 items by changing the last line to: AND matches.match_count >= (searched.attribute_count - 1); Also, if you re-arrange the query slightly, you can turn it into a view. The trick is to have the search_id as an output column rather than a WHERE clause item in the sub-selects. Have fun! -Josh ______AGLIO DATABASE SOLUTIONS___________________________ Josh Berkus Complete information technology [EMAIL PROTECTED] and data management solutions (415) 565-7293 for law firms, small businesses fax 621-2533 and non-profit organizations. San Francisco ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives? http://archives.postgresql.org