THE WORLD'S LARGEST WEB DEVELOPER SITE

SQL Tutorial

SQL HOME SQL Intro SQL Syntax SQL Select SQL Select Distinct SQL Where SQL And, Or, Not SQL Order By SQL Insert Into SQL Null Values SQL Update SQL Delete SQL Select Top SQL Min and Max SQL Count, Avg, Sum SQL Like SQL Wildcards SQL In SQL Between SQL Aliases SQL Joins SQL Inner Join SQL Left Join SQL Right Join SQL Full Join SQL Self Join SQL Union SQL Group By SQL Having SQL Exists SQL Any, All SQL Select Into SQL Insert Into Select SQL Case SQL Null Functions SQL Stored Procedures SQL Comments

SQL Database

SQL Create DB SQL Drop DB SQL Backup DB SQL Create Table SQL Drop Table SQL Alter Table SQL Constraints SQL Not Null SQL Unique SQL Primary Key SQL Foreign Key SQL Check SQL Default SQL Index SQL Auto Increment SQL Dates SQL Views SQL Injection SQL Hosting

SQL References

SQL Keywords MySQL Functions SQL Server Functions MS Access Functions SQL Operators SQL Data Types SQL Quick Ref

SQL Examples

SQL Examples SQL Quiz SQL Exercises SQL Certificate

SQL Joins


SQL JOIN

A JOIN clause is used to combine rows from two or more tables, based on a related column between them.

Let's look at a selection from the "Orders" table:

OrderID CustomerID OrderDate
10308 2 1996-09-18
10309 37 1996-09-19
10310 77 1996-09-20

Then, look at a selection from the "Customers" table:

CustomerID CustomerName ContactName Country
1 Alfreds Futterkiste Maria Anders Germany
2 Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados Ana Trujillo Mexico
3 Antonio Moreno Taquería Antonio Moreno Mexico

Notice that the "CustomerID" column in the "Orders" table refers to the "CustomerID" in the "Customers" table. The relationship between the two tables above is the "CustomerID" column.

Then, we can create the following SQL statement (that contains an INNER JOIN), that selects records that have matching values in both tables:

Example

SELECT Orders.OrderID, Customers.CustomerName, Orders.OrderDate
FROM Orders
INNER JOIN Customers ON Orders.CustomerID=Customers.CustomerID;
Try it Yourself »

and it will produce something like this:

OrderID CustomerName OrderDate
10308 Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados 9/18/1996
10365 Antonio Moreno Taquería 11/27/1996
10383 Around the Horn 12/16/1996
10355 Around the Horn 11/15/1996
10278 Berglunds snabbköp 8/12/1996

Different Types of SQL JOINs

Here are the different types of the JOINs in SQL:

  • (INNER) JOIN: Returns records that have matching values in both tables
  • LEFT (OUTER) JOIN: Returns all records from the left table, and the matched records from the right table
  • RIGHT (OUTER) JOIN: Returns all records from the right table, and the matched records from the left table
  • FULL (OUTER) JOIN: Returns all records when there is a match in either left or right table

SQL INNER JOIN  SQL LEFT JOIN  SQL RIGHT JOIN  SQL FULL OUTER JOIN


Test Yourself With Exercises

Exercise:

Insert the missing parts in the JOIN clause to join the two tables Orders and Customers, using the CustomerID field in both tables as the relationship between the two tables.

SELECT *
FROM Orders
LEFT JOIN Customers
=
;

Start the Exercise