noob alert! What i thought was a real simple query...

Hi

I have a table which has the column [itemNumber] Which contains numbers from 000 to 999. I have another table which has the UPC data for given items
I am trying to get results from my query that will show me every number in the itemNumberSet table that does not already exist (in the substring) of the UPCcode column.

By using the query below i am able to retrieve the opposite, and it works by returning results that do exist in the UPCcode column. But I cannot seem to get it to do the opposite which is what i am after. I figured it would be as simple as using NOT IN but that returned 0 results.

SELECT itemNumber FROM itemNumberSet
WHERE itemNumber IN (select SUBSTRING(UPCcode, 9, 3) FROM itemUPCtable)
ORDER BY itemNumber

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.
Jthis perhaps?
SELECT itemNumberSet.itemNumber
FROM itemNumberSet
LEFT OUTER
JOIN itemUPCtable
ON SUBSTRING(itemUPCtable.UPCcode,9,3) = itemNumberSet.itemNumber
WHERE SUBSTRING(itemUPCtable.UPCcode,9,3) IS NULL
ORDER
BY itemNumberSet.itemNumber|||I really need to practice playing with joins, cause as it stands im a hack. I should really be taking a course or something. I see you are in Toronto. I'm in Mississauga. Any tips as to where one might go to be properly educated in SQL?

Thanks again
J|||you can go a long way with online free sql tutorials

however, you need to make sure you are on an actual tutorial site, as in here's-some-good-information-because-i-love-sql type of tutorial site, rather than here's-some-sql-stuff-which-i-lifted-from-somewhere-so-i-can-run-a-lot-of-ads-and-make-money type of tutorial site

there are a couple of good sites listed here: http://r937.com/links.cfm?links=sqlsql