Problem I have 3 tables: People, Phones and Emails. Each person has an UNIQUE ID, and each person can have multiple numbers or multiple emails. Simplified it looks like this: +---------+----------+ | ID | Name | +---------+----------+ | 5000003 | Amy | | 5000004 | George | | 5000005 | John | | 5000008 | Steven | | 8000009 | Ashley | +---------+----------+ +---------+-----------------+ | ID | Number | +---------+-----------------+ | 5000005 | 5551234 | | 5000005 | 5154324 | | 5000008 | 2487312 | | 8000009 | 7134584 | | 5000008 | 8451384 | +---------+-----------------+ +---------+------------------------------+ | ID | Email | +---------+------------------------------+ | 5000005 | [email protected] | | 5000005 | [email protected] | | 5000008 | [email protected] | | 5000008 | [email protected] | | 5000008 | [email protected] | | 8000009 | [email protected] | | 5000004 | [email protected] | +---------+------------------------------+ I am trying to joining them together without duplicates. It works great, when I try to join only Emails with People or only Phones with People. SELECT People.Name, People.ID, Phones.Number FROM People LEFT OUTER JOIN Phones ON People.ID=Phones.ID ORDER BY Name, ID, Number; +----------+---------+-----------------+ | Name | ID | Number | +----------+---------+-----------------+ | Steven | 5000008 | 8451384 | | Steven | 5000008 | 24887312 | | John | 5000005 | 5551234 | | John | 5000005 | 5154324 | | George | 5000004 | NULL | | Ashley | 8000009 | 7134584 | | Amy | 5000003 | NULL | +----------+---------+-----------------+ SELECT People.Name, People.ID, Emails.Email FROM People LEFT OUTER JOIN Emails ON People.ID=Emails.ID ORDER BY Name, ID, Email; +----------+---------+------------------------------+ | Name | ID | Email | +----------+---------+------------------------------+ | Steven | 5000008 | [email protected] | | Steven | 5000008 | [email protected] | | Steven | 5000008 | [email protected] | | John | 5000005 | [email protected] | | John | 5000005 | [email protected] | | George | 5000004 | [email protected] | | Ashley | 8000009 | [email protected] | | Amy | 5000003 | NULL | +----------+---------+------------------------------+ However, when I try to join Emails and Phones on People - I get this: SELECT People.Name, People.ID, Phones.Number, Emails.Email FROM People LEFT OUTER JOIN Phones ON People.ID = Phones.ID LEFT OUTER JOIN Emails ON People.ID = Emails.ID ORDER BY Name, ID, Number, Email; +----------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------+ | Name | ID | Number | Email | +----------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------+ | Steven | 5000008 | 8451384 | [email protected] | | Steven | 5000008 | 8451384 | [email protected] | | Steven | 5000008 | 8451384 | [email protected] | | Steven | 5000008 | 24887312 | [email protected] | | Steven | 5000008 | 24887312 | [email protected] | | Steven | 5000008 | 24887312 | [email protected] | | John | 5000005 | 5551234 | [email protected] | | John | 5000005 | 5551234 | [email protected] | | John | 5000005 | 5154324 | [email protected] | | John | 5000005 | 5154324 | [email protected] | | George | 5000004 | NULL | [email protected] | | Ashley | 8000009 | 7134584 | [email protected] | | Amy | 5000003 | NULL | NULL | +----------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------+ What happens is - if a Person has 2 numbers, all his emails are shown twice (They can not be sorted! which means they can not be removed by @last) What I want: Bottom line, playing with the @last, I want to end up with somethig like this, but @last won't work if I don't arrange ORDER columns in the righ way - and this seems like a big problem..Orderin the email column. Because seen from the example above: Steven has 2 phone number and 3 emails. The JOIN Emails with Numbers happens with each email - thus duplicated values that can not be sorted (SORT BY does not work on them). **THIS IS WHAT I WANT** +----------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------+ | Name | ID | Number | Email | +----------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------+ | Steven | 5000008 | 8451384 | [email protected] | | | | 24887312 | [email protected] | | | | | [email protected] | | John | 5000005 | 5551234 | [email protected] | | | | 5154324 | [email protected] | | George | 5000004 | NULL | [email protected] | | Ashley | 8000009 | 7134584 | [email protected] | | Amy | 5000003 | NULL | NULL | +----------+---------+-----------------+------------------------------+ Now I'm told that it's best to keep emails and number in separated tables because one can have many emails. So if it's such a common thing to do, what isn't there a simple solution? I'd be happy with a PHP Solution aswell. What I know how to do by now that satisfies it, but is not as pretty. If I do it with GROUP_CONTACT I geat a satisfactory result, but it doesn't look as pretty: I can't put a "Email type = work" next to it. SELECT People.Ime, GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT Phones.Number), GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT Emails.Email) FROM People LEFT OUTER JOIN Phones ON People.ID=Phones.ID LEFT OUTER JOIN Emails ON People.ID=Emails.ID GROUP BY Name; +----------+----------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Name | GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT Phones.Number) | GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT Emails.Email) | +----------+----------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Steven | 8451384,24887312 | [email protected],[email protected],[email protected] | | John | 5551234,5154324 | [email protected],[email protected] | | George | NULL | [email protected] | | Ashley | 7134584 | [email protected] | | Amy | NULL | NULL | +----------+----------------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+