help creating sql query

[Francesco]

Hi all,
I'm new to sql in general and I need to create what is for me a complex sql query.
I try to explain the problem as easly as possible.
My db has 3 tables called 'shops', 'item' and 'prices'.

Table shop is made by:
id (int)
name (varchar)
address (varchar)

Table item is made by:
id (int)
cod (varchar)
name (varchar)
desc (varchar)
reg_date (date)
user (varchar)

Finally, table price want to record prices for items in different shops in different times:
recordid (int)
iditem (int) -> this refers to item.id
idshop (int) -> this refers to shop.id
date (date)
price (float)
user (varchar)

Now I would like to create a web page with a table with shops in colums and a row for every product with the last (referred to price.date) price recorded for the every shop (or a null value if there is no rcord for a specific item/shop combination).

I coudl do that by doing a single query for every item and every shop (this means items * shops queries), but I bet there is a better way....

Can anyone help me, pls?

Regards,

Francesco