yeah, for the tables i'm actually building i have clientId a the primarky key for the client table, but project_id is the primary key for projets.

after finally getting to speak ot some gurus, i've discovered, there isn't much i can do about it, in the sence i thought i could - it would function like a php include, so it would call 'clients' and plug in the name.

what i ahve found though is when running the edit script, i can call both tables and do a left join on the two fields and it will edit them both @ the same time. that or i've misunderstood why i'd be calling them with a select call in my php script.

on a side note, each client should have a unique name - if i do repeat business a new field doesn't get made, and the name refers to business name, not personal - IE talkfreelance not rob.