I the following query, which works quite well. I either select everything, when colname='rand' or the results of filtering drop down boxes. You can see it in action at: https://www.artcardsforcauses.com/gallery.php?thm=rand . What I would like it to have this initial view, when no filtering is selected, to be a random selection of art work from the last 90 days.

SELECT *
, country_art
FROM image_img
LEFT JOIN label
ON id_lbl=(theme_img
OR style_img
OR medium_img
OR season_img)
LEFT JOIN artist_art On artist_img=user_art
WHERE approvedIMG=1
AND private_img <> 1
OR `private_img`IS NULL
AND (colname LIKE 'rand')
OR( artist_img = colname2
AND theme_img LIKE %colname3%
AND medium_img LIKE %colname4%
AND style_img LIKE %colname5%
AND season_img LIKE %colname6%
AND country_art LIKE %colname7%)
ORDER BY cdates_img DESC

(I hope this formatting works for Rudy!)

Nick

nope, it didn't

before i look at a query, i have to understand where the columns are coming from

could you please revise it, and supply the missing table qualifiers
also, just looking at your mix of ANDs and ORs in the WHERE clause, i'm pretty sure i know what you wanted it to mean, but i can assure you that it doesn't actually work the way you wanted

also, looking at your first ON clause, it is for sure not executing the way you think

i dispute your claim that this query "works quite well"

no offence

The variables are record ids from a lookup table. (attached)

SELECT image_img.id_img, artist_art.country
FROM image_img
LEFT OUTER
JOIN label
ON label.id_lbl = ( $theme_img
OR $style_img
OR $medium_img
OR $season_img )
LEFT OUTER
JOIN artist_art
On image_img.artist_img = artist_art.user_art
WHERE image_img.approvedIMG = 1
AND image_img.private_img <> 1
OR image_img.`private_img`IS NULL
AND ( $URLvar LIKE 'rand' )
OR ( image_img.artist_img = $artist
AND image_img.theme_img LIKE %$theme%
AND image_img.medium_img LIKE %$medium%
AND image_img.style_img LIKE %$style%
AND image_img.season_img LIKE %$season%
AND image_img.country_art LIKE %$country% )
ORDER
BY imageimg.cdates_img DESC

Your right it is not working perfectly, the more testing I do the more problems I have. Time is short today but I will follow up on your pointers.

Thank you

Ultimately I convinced my wife that even when this works the result is not so desirable. Until she have images in every combination the viewer will see empty results most of the time.

So back to square one

Nick