i don't know if this is a very good topic title, but finding a title is almost more complicated than the problem itself... ;-) i've got 2 tables: 'device_relation' and 'device'. device relation connects one device to another device. so in device_relation i've got 3 fields: device_relation_id, output_device_id and input_device_id. for example: 1, 1, 2. the out_device_id and input_device_id are foreign keys to the 'device' table. device has got 2 fields: device_id and name. for example: 1, DVD and 2, TV. so, according to my device_relation table, a DVD is connected to a TV. so far, so good. however, i can't find a proper query to show both DVD and TV instead of the output_device_id and input_device_id when i select all records from 'device_relation'. i have been busy with joins, but i can't join the device table twice. does anybody have an idea? thanks in advance!