What is Join?
An SQL Join is used to combine data from two or more tables, based on a common field between them. For example, consider the following two tables.
Student Table
EnrollNo | StudentName | Address |
---|---|---|
1001 | geek1 | geeksquiz1 |
1002 | geek2 | geeksquiz2 |
1003 | geek3 | geeksquiz3 |
1004 | geek4 | geeksquiz4 |
StudentCourse Table
CourseID | EnrollNo |
---|---|
1 | 1001 |
2 | 1001 |
3 | 1001 |
1 | 1002 |
2 | 1003 |
Following is join query that shows names of students enrolled in different courseIDs.
SELECT StudentCourse.CourseID,Student.StudentName FROM Student INNER JOIN StudentCourse ON StudentCourse.EnrollNo = Student.EnrollNo ORDER BY StudentCourse.CourseID
Note: INNER is optional above. Simple JOIN is also considered as INNER JOIN
The above query would produce following result.
CourseID | StudentName |
---|---|
1 | geek1 |
1 | geek2 |
2 | geek1 |
2 | geek3 |
3 | geek1 |
What is the difference between inner join and outer join?
Outer Join is of 3 types
1) Left outer join
2) Right outer join
3) Full Join
1) Left outer join returns all rows of table on left side of join. The rows for which there is no matching row on right side, result contains NULL in the right side.
SELECT Student.StudentName, StudentCourse.CourseID FROM Student LEFT OUTER JOIN StudentCourse ON StudentCourse.EnrollNo = Student.EnrollNo ORDER BY StudentCourse.CourseID
Note: OUTER is optional above. Simple LEFT JOIN is also considered as LEFT OUTER JOIN
StudentName | CourseID |
---|---|
geek4 | NULL |
geek2 | 1 |
geek1 | 1 |
geek1 | 2 |
geek3 | 2 |
geek1 | 3 |
2) Right Outer Join is similar to Left Outer Join (Right replaces Left everywhere)
3) Full Outer Join Contains results of both Left and Right outer joins.
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