Russell gives a good answer as to why permanently joining on names is not usually a good idea. But to answer your question: all the keys have to match. The telephone would have to be formatted with hyphens and or parenthesis exactly the same in both fields. If 2 out of 3 of your keys match then there's no match.

Geoff

> -----Original Message-----
> From: FileMaker Pro Discussions [mailto:FMPRO-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barbara Passman
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2012 1:53 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Basic question ; creating relationships
> 
> When establishing relatioh-ships between two tables, and more than one
> key field is used, is it better to enter all the key relationships in the two
> tables, or , using duplicate tables, use each dyad to link by single key field?
> 
> Example
> Linking  between two tables , using Surname, First Name and Home
> Telephone
> Am I wiser to  have Table A1related to Table B1 via Surname and First Name
> And then show the relationship between Home Telephones in Table A2 and
> B2?
> 
> What happens if I link Surname, First Name and Home Telephone (all three
> key fields ) between one iteration of each table Table A and Table B and two
> of the three key fields match but a third does not ?
> Will the portal in Table A still show the related data from Table B even though
> the Home Telephone numbers do not match between Table A and Table B?
> 
> I guess what I am asking is whether Filemaker understands the selection of
> several Key field relationships as implying
> First Name AND Last Name AND Telephone to see the relationship?
> Or will Filemaker see the relationship  if ANY of the Key fields match ?
> 
> I have never seen any explanation of this.