Posted by Erland Sommarskog on 10/01/02 11:19

thilbert (thilbert@gmail.com) writes:
> Thanks Debian, that did it. Is it then incorrect to use the WHERE
> clause when using an outer join? I've looked at books on-line and
> could not find a reference to using WHERE clauses with outer joins,
> however they appear to be a typical part of inner joins.

Incorrect and incorrect, it has a different meaning. The FROM clause
lasts all the way to WHERE, so you have

FROM a LEFT JOIN b ON a.col = b.col

Then the WHERE is applied. But if you say

WHERE b.othercol = 3

you are effectively filter out the rows from a which did not have a
matching row in b.

If you say

FROM a LEFT JOIN b ON a.col = b.col AND b.othercol = 3

The condition of othercol becomes part of the join, so that for
rows where a.col = b.col but b.othercol = 2 you will get NULL
values for b.*.

You can also say:

FROM a LEFT JOIN b ON a.col = b.col
WHERE b.othercol = 3 OR b.col IS NULL

But this gives a different result. Here the rows where a.col = b.col
but b.othercol = 2 will be removed from the result set.

See also Celko treatise on the subject.
--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, esquel@sommarskog.se

Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinfo/productdoc/2000/books.asp

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