Strings

Can anyone advise on how to surround a string variable in a query. I select a string code from a column using: $result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $TA WHERE Profileid = '$profileid'"); $row = mysql_fetch_array($result); I then want to extract from a second table an id that relates to the code from the first query. I've tried various combinations of: $result = mysql_query("select Primaryid from primarycodes where Code = '$row[Primaryexpertise]'") with =, ==, ===, ', \", but always get a syntax error. I can get it to work with LIKE as follows: $result = mysql_query("select Primaryid from primarycodes where Code like '%$row[Primaryexpertise]%'") but I need greater accuracy because some codes contain similar data. String manipulation has me baffled most of the time! Thanks. Mick Lloyd mjl@consultingrooms.com Tel: +44 (0)1684 560224