The FROM clause indicates the component or components from which to retrieve records. If you name more than one component, you are performing a join. For each table specified, you can optionally specify an alias. Doctrine_Query offers easy to use methods such as from(), addFrom(), leftJoin() and innerJoin() for managing the FROM part of your DQL query. from('User')->execute(); // find all users with only their names (and primary keys) fetched \$coll = \$q->select('u.name')->('User u'); ?>"); ?>