>with a inner join, the result is not dependant upon whether a database is on the left or right of the phrase 'inner join'.

Correct. An inner join gives you the results found in both tables. Just like writing a SQL SELECT statement with just a WHERE clause.. WHERE table1.pkey=table2.pkey. That's the same as spelling out the INNER JOIN syntactically (heh..is that a word?) and you only get records in the result where pkey exists in both tables.

It's only when your dealing with LEFT OUTER JOIN or RIGHT OUTER JOIN that the location of the table/database name in the syntax has an effect. HTH.