More on... Multiple table selection. (fwd)

Hi, I posted this before but messed up what I was trying to do.  In the
below example, I would like to select all information from multiple tables
based on search information from either or both table.  The search
information may or may not include the idnum...

ex: select a.firstname, b.phone from a, b where a.firstname ~* 'bob';

OR LIKE

select a.firstname, b.phone from a, b where a.firstname ~* 'bob' and
b.phone ~ '567';

Basically, I think I need to do a join using the key field of idnum but
have never done that before.  Can someone draw a quick statement up for
me.  Can this be done in one statement.  I can do it in two or three
easily but then where is the power of the database.... Thanks again.

--
Colin Dick
On Call Internet Services
cdick@mail.ocis.net


--================Original Post======================--

    I am new to the more complex SQL statements and I am having
trouble creating the statement I need.

    I have two tables:

table a            table b
-------                 -------
idnum (unique)        idnum (unique)
firstname        phone
lastname        fax


I want to be able to search the table for any value (sometimes multiple
values) and bring back all the information for all tables with the same
idnum. Would a query similar to the following do it.

select a.idnum, a.firstname, a.lastname, b.phone from a, b where
a.firstname='bob' and b.fax='123-4567' and (a.idnum=b.idnum);

Does that statement make sense?  Or can someone make a suggestion to help
me acclomplish the task.  Thadvanceanks...

--
Colin Dick
On Call Internet Services
cdick@mail.ocis.net