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.