MySQL two tables and an uneven number of rows

Hello All, Hoping you can help clear my head on this. I have two MySQL tables for custom fields data to be stored. custom_fields custom_fields_meta custom_fields is the info for the actual field displayed in the html and custom_fields_meta is the data stored from entering a value on said field in the form. Custom fields can be added and removed at will by the user and so when for instance, adding a field, it currently creates an uneven number of rows in the custom_fields_meta if there were any entries with fields create prior to this new one. Currently I have this code: $SQL = "SELECT ft.*, mt.Meta_Value FROM CUSTOM_FIELDS ft LEFT JOIN CUSTOM_FIELDS_META mt ON mt.Field_ID = ft.Field_ID WHERE mt.Order_ID=%d ORDER BY ft.Field_ID ASC"; I have tried JOIN, FULL JOIN, FULL OUTER JOIN, OUTER JOIN and LEFT JOIN. If I manually put in the missing rows in the meta table, left join works. However, manually updating prior entries is not going to happen. So my question is how do I get all the table rows in both tables even if there is not a row to match on the meta table? or How would I update the prior entries to include this new field in the meta table and keep things orderly? The meta is stored per order id and so there is groups of meta data per order id. I would like to avoid scattered data. Is there a way to push the index down to fit them in or is this just going to be too costly on server resources? TIA, Best, Karl DeSaulniers Design Drumm http://designdrumm.com <http://designdrumm.com/>