the trouble with OR

Path: emory!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!ncar!uchinews!quads!admn From: admn@quads.uchicago.edu (Bonnie J. Black) Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix Keywords: Help! Message-ID: <1991Nov14.230943.26485@midway.uchicago.edu> Date: 14 Nov 91 23:09:43 GMT Sender: news@uchinews.uchicago.edu (News System) Organization: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Originator: admn@midway.uchicago.edu I am having trouble in Informix-SQL. I have an acereport which generates a list of mailing labels for something we're sending out. I want to change it so that it also includes my own name and address as well as another name and address for someone else in this office. We are adding ourselves to the list so that we can check up on the mailing house and see that they get the thing out in a timely fashion and that it is done correctly. My problem is this: these two names we want to enter exist in the main table of the database but nowhere else. The program works just fine when I use the old version which does not include the two additional names. These two additional names do not conform to the conditions of the where clause, so they have to be specified separately. What I have tried is to add them in as follows: select LIST from TABLES where (JOINS and CONDITIONS) or account = "ACCOUNT ON MY ENTRY" or account = "ACCOUNT ON THE OTHER ADDITIONAL ENTRY" If I run it with only the first three lines, it runs beautifully. When I add the last two lines, it fails miserably. I realize that using "OR" is expensive from a performance point of view, but I didn't expect it to make this select fail entirely. If you can help me solve this problem, you'll be helping me solve several others as well. Thanks, -- Bonnie J. Black (admn@midway.uchicago.edu) The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (but looking for work in Pittsburgh) (312) 702-2555 (9-5 CST) -- Bonnie J. Black (admn@midway.uchicago.edu) The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (but looking for work in Pittsburgh) (312) 702-2555 (9-5 CST)