Newbie Q: was recursive loops, how to do w/Smarty?

Hi

I'm a beginner at this, but love the concept.
Use table sized spoons when answering..

I have something that I normally would code like this:
<loop1>
  SQL-query1
  ...
  <loop2>
    SQL-query2, using the result of SQL-query1 as a part of the query
    ...
  </loop2>
</loop1>

How to do this best with Smarty?

The data is ordered something like this:
TABLE1:
fields: id, info1, info2,...

TABLE2:
fields: id, table1-ref-id, date, info1, info2,...

One entry in TABLE1 has many (thousands) referencing entries in TABLE2. I 
generally have thousands of entries in TABLE1, each having thousands of 
entries in TABLE2, so this generates a lot of data to be shown - hence I use 
the info-fields to select the desired output area.

Another small Q:
I also use SQL-SELECTs with LIMIT, to limit the size of the page, but I find 
this to be a part of presentation, not business logic. Is the best way to 
use .total and .iteration for this?

My code looks so much nicer using Smarty, many thanks to all developers!

-- 
Bjørge