I think there is "," before left join, try remove it.

No luck. Here is the fuller code if it helps to see what I am trying to accomplish.

I have two tables that deal with news stories. One (web_Articles) holds the story content (images, text, author id, etc). The other (web_Staff) holds author information. An "Author" column in web_Articles holds the an int value equal to the "AuthorID" in web_Staff. I would rather show "Julie Cole" as author of the story, rather than "2". 

When I use the below code, I get the following error:

System.Xml.Xsl.XslLoadException: Expected token ')', found 'getAuthor'. 
...es.Author = web_Staff.StaffID, ' -->getAuthor<-- ') An error occurred at C:\inetpub\wwwroot\UT\xslt\634509170863705620_temp.xslt(21,5). 
at System.Xml.Xsl.XslCompiledTransform.LoadInternal(Object stylesheet, XsltSettings settings, XmlResolver stylesheetResolver) 
at umbraco.presentation.webservices.codeEditorSave.SaveXslt(String fileName, String oldName, String fileContents, Boolean ignoreDebugging)

    <xsl:variable name = "storyID" select = "umbraco.library:RequestQueryString('id')" />
    <!-- Grabs the id number from URL -->

    <xsl:variable name = "newsStory" select="SQL:GetDataSet('DBname', concat('SELECT ArticleID, ArticleType, ImageFile1, ImageFile2, ImageFile3, ImageFile1Caption, ImageFile2Caption, ImageFile3Caption, Display, ArticleStartDate, Content, Title, Author FROM web_Articles WHERE ArticleID = ', $storyID), 'newsStory')"/>  
    <!-- gets SQL data from external database tables by the id number in the URL -->

    <xsl:variable name = "getAuthor" select="SQL:GetDataSet('DBname', 'SELECT Author, FirstName, LastName, StaffID FROM web_Articles LEFT JOIN web_Staff ON web_Articles.Author = web_Staff.StaffID, 'getAuthor')"/>  
    <!-- attempting to grab the Author's first and last name from the Staff table -->

    <!--<xsl:variable name = "getAuthor" select="SQL:GetDataSet('DBname', concat('SELECT ArticleID, Author, StaffID FROM web_Articles WHERE ArticleID = ', $storyID), LEFT JOIN web_Staff ON web_Articles.Author = web_Staff.StaffID, 'getAuthor')"/>  -->
     <!-- Here is the same query, but with concat, drawing the ID from the URL -->

    <xsl:template match="/">

      <xsl:for-each select = "$newsStory//newsStory">
      <h1><xsl:value-of select = "Title" disable-output-escaping="yes" /></h1>
        
      <span id = "share_newsstory">
        <span class = "publish_info">
          <xsl:for-each select = "$getAuthor//getAuthor">
            <xsl:value-of select = "FirstName" />&nbsp;<xsl:value-of select = "LastName" />
          </xsl:for-each> | <xsl:value-of select="umbraco.library:FormatDateTime(ArticleStartDate, 'MMM d, yyyy')"/></span>
  <!-- $getAuthor has its own for-each in order to enact the $getAuthor variable.
        I don't know if this is the right way to do it. -->
      </span>
        
      <xsl:value-of select = "Content" disable-output-escaping="yes" />
        
    </xsl:for-each>
  </xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

I'm not sure what to try next. Any guidance would be most appreciated!

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