My error is this: "You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'inner='y' AND start<=CURDATE()' at line 1" The intent of this section of the code is to fill $lft and $rgt with somewhat randomized content from the "item" column that meets several requirements. This code worked perfectly until I added: AND inner='y' To two of the SELECT statements. When I delete both occurances of this AND, the code will go back to properly selecting content as desired with the exception of taking the "inner" column into account. I've done a lot of searching for an answer but I have not found anything. I get the feeling it is something simple that eludes me... $bri=rand(0, 1); if ($bri==0) { $query="SELECT * FROM $table WHERE type='lft' AND subject='chr0001' AND start<=CURDATE()"; $result=mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error()); $num=mysql_numrows($result) - 1; $rand=rand(0,$num); $lft=mysql_result($result,$rand,"item"); $lftsub=mysql_result($result,$rand,"subject"); } else { $query="SELECT * FROM $table WHERE type='lft' AND subject!='chr0001' AND inner='y' AND start<=CURDATE()"; $result=mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error()); $num=mysql_numrows($result) - 1; $rand=rand(0,$num); $lft=mysql_result($result,$rand,"item"); $lftsub=mysql_result($result,$rand,"subject"); } if ($bri==1) { $query="SELECT * FROM $table WHERE type='rgt' AND subject='chr0001' AND start<=CURDATE()"; $result=mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error()); $num=mysql_numrows($result) - 1; $rand=rand(0,$num); $rgt=mysql_result($result,$rand,"item"); $rgtsub=mysql_result($result,$rand,"subject"); } else { $query="SELECT * FROM $table WHERE type='rgt' AND subject!='chr0001' AND inner='y' AND start<=CURDATE()"; $result=mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error()); $num=mysql_numrows($result) - 1; $rand=rand(0,$num); $rgt=mysql_result($result,$rand,"item"); $rgtsub=mysql_result($result,$rand,"subject"); }