Yeah, I know this was KINDA covered in databases, but could somebody give me
a refresher of what a left join is in, say, terms of tables FOO and BAR.
Thanks.

"John Meyer" <john.l.meyer@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:BbCdnUllJ9IlJjDeRVn-uQ@comcast.com...
> Yeah, I know this was KINDA covered in databases, but could somebody give
> me
> a refresher of what a left join is in, say, terms of tables FOO and BAR.
> Thanks.

http://www.firstsql.com/tutor3.htm#outer

Regards,
Bill K.

Bill Karwin wrote:

>
> http://www.firstsql.com/tutor3.htm#outer
>
> Regards,
> Bill K.


Kind of get that one. It's a little bit harder to get my mind around that
one. For instance, listing all orders that don't have any items on them,
would that be an instance where you would use an OUTER/LEFT join.

"John Meyer" <john.l.meyer@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:GKidndMlHPZAUDDenZ2dnUVZ_sWdnZ2d@comcast.com. ..
> For instance, listing all orders that don't have any items on them,
> would that be an instance where you would use an OUTER/LEFT join.

Yes, probably. (it's hard to give a blanket answer because I don't know for
sure what your database structure is)

Here's another link that describes outer joins concisely and gives an
example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_join#Left_outer_join

I am reluctant to write a long description of how outer joins work, because
there are many resources on the internet that explain this already. Do a
google search for "sql outer join tutorial" or something.

I sympathize that the typical SQL book doesn't cover this topic well. Try
reading "SQL for Smarties" by Joe Celko.

Regards,
Bill K.