hi! i'm actually sort of newbie in this whole database world, but i have learned enough to somewhat defend myself, but i have come upon a situation where i cant think of a way to retrieve the data the way i need it, i just found out this forum existed and i think it's just great!

ok my real problem, i'll describe with a simplier example
lets say i have the following tables:

create table names(
id serial PRIMARY KEY,
name text
);

create table x(
x1 integer REFERENCES names (id),
x2 integer REFERENCES names (id),
x3 integer REFERENCES names (id)
);

so... my names table is populated with

id | name
-----------
1 | name1
2 | name2
3 | name3
4 | name4
5 | name5

and my x table contains the following:

x1 | x2 | x3
--------------
2 | 3 | 5
1 | 4 | 2


now, what i need is to make a query similar to:
select name from names,x where x.x1=names.id;


but the tricky thing is that i need to list the 3 names
for example for the first row of the x table (2, 3,5), i would need to get a list looking like this:

name | name | name
----------------------------
name2 | name3 | name5




i have tried a lot of combinations of queries but havent succeded, the closest i get is

name
--------
name2
name3
name5


if this is not possible let me know so i can stop trying

answered in mysql forum

need help with query

I don't know and I can't imagine why are you needing something like that.

I've seen that you had an answer but I still want to make you an advice. That kind of solutions are sometimes very problematic. Sooner or later you will have to meke a change. It's better soon.
That kind of solution let's you out of inserting new records or colums without rebuilding the query.

hehe i already changed the way i'll access the data, but thanks anyway!!