Difference between INNER and OUTER joins


In a database such as MSSQL, data is divided into a number of tables which are then connected (Joined) together by JOIN in SELECT commands to read records from multiple tables.


Assuming you're joining on columns with no duplicates, which is a very common case:

An inner join of A and B gives the result of A intersect B, i.e. the inner part of a venn diagram intersection.

An outer join of A and B gives the results of A union B, i.e. the outer parts of a venn diagram union.

Examples

Suppose you have two Tables, with a single column each, and data as follows:

A    B
-    -
1    3
2    4
3    5
4    6
Note that (1,2) are unique to A, (3,4) are common, and (5,6) are unique to B.

Inner join

An inner join using either of the equivalent queries gives the intersection of the two tables, i.e. the two rows they have in common.

select * from a INNER JOIN b on a.a = b.b;
select a.*,b.*  from a,b where a.a = b.b;

a | b
--+--
3 | 3
4 | 4
Left outer join

A left outer join will give all rows in A, plus any common rows in B.

select * from a LEFT OUTER JOIN b on a.a = b.b;
select a.*,b.*  from a,b where a.a = b.b(+);

a |  b  
--+-----
1 | null
2 | null
3 |    3
4 |    4
Full outer join

A full outer join will give you the union of A and B, i.e. All the rows in A and all the rows in B. If something in A doesn't have a corresponding datum in B, then the B portion is null, and vice versa.

select * from a FULL OUTER JOIN b on a.a = b.b;

 a   |  b  
-----+-----
   1 | null
   2 | null
   3 |    3
   4 |    4
null |    6
null |    5



Comments

  1. very nice sir...........................

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bootstrap Modal Popup keep open on PostBack in ASP.Net

Resolved Issue in Asp core 3.0 serializersettings does not exist in AddJsonOptions

.Net most asked interview questions for experienced professionals (C#,Asp WEBFORM,MVC,ASP CORE,WEB API,SQL Server,Java Script,Jquery)