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

Ana Trujillo Emparedados y

2 Ana Trujillo Mexico
helados

Antonio
3 Antonio Moreno Taquería Mexico
Moreno

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;

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

Test Yourself With Exercises

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
__________ = __________ ;

SQL INNER JOIN Keyword

The INNER JOIN keyword selects records that have matching values in both tables.

INNER JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table1
INNER JOIN table2
ON table1.column_name = table2.column_name;
Demo Database
In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.

Below is a selection from the "Orders" table:

OrderID CustomerID EmployeeID OrderDate ShipperID

10308 2 7 1996-09-18 3

10309 37 3 1996-09-19 1

10310 77 8 1996-09-20 2

And a selection from the "Customers" table:

Custome CustomerNa Contact Postal

Address City Country
rID me Name Code

1 Alfreds Maria Obere Str.

Berlin 12209 Germany
Futterkiste Anders 57

Ana Trujillo Avda. de la

Ana México
2 Emparedados y Constitución 05021 Mexico
Trujillo D.F.
helados 2222

Antonio Moreno Antonio Mataderos México

3 05023 Mexico
Taquería Moreno 2312 D.F.

The following SQL statement selects all orders with customer information:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT Orders.OrderID, Customers.CustomerName

FROM Orders
INNER JOIN Customers ON Orders.CustomerID = Customers.CustomerID;

Note: The INNER JOIN keyword selects all rows from both tables as long as
there is a match between the columns. If there are records in the "Orders" table
that do not have matches in "Customers", these orders will not be shown!

JOIN Three Tables

The following SQL statement selects all orders with customer and shipper information:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT Orders.OrderID, Customers.CustomerName, Shippers.ShipperName

FROM ((Orders
INNER JOIN Customers ON Orders.CustomerID = Customers.CustomerID)
INNER JOIN Shippers ON Orders.ShipperID = Shippers.ShipperID);
Test Yourself With Exercises
Choose the correct JOIN clause to select all records from the two tables where
there is a match in both tables.

SELECT *
FROM Orders
__________
ON Orders.CustomerID=Customers.CustomerID;

SQL LEFT JOIN Keyword

The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all records from the left table (table1), and the matched
records from the right table (table2). The result is NULL from the right side, if there is no
match.

LEFT JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table1
LEFT JOIN table2
ON table1.column_name = table2.column_name;

Note: In some databases LEFT JOIN is called LEFT OUTER JOIN.

Demo Database
In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:

Customer Contact Postal

CustomerName Address City Country
ID Name Code

1 Alfreds Maria
Obere Str. 57 Berlin 12209 Germany
Futterkiste Anders

Ana Trujillo Avda. de la

Ana México
2 Emparedados y Constitución 05021 Mexico
Trujillo D.F.
helados 2222

Antonio Moreno Antonio Mataderos México

3 05023 Mexico
Taquería Moreno 2312 D.F.
And a selection from the "Orders" table:
OrderID CustomerID EmployeeID OrderDate ShipperID

10308 2 7 1996-09-18 3

10309 37 3 1996-09-19 1

10310 77 8 1996-09-20 2

SQL LEFT JOIN Example

The following SQL statement will select all customers, and any orders they might have:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT Customers.CustomerName, Orders.OrderID

FROM Customers
LEFT JOIN Orders ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID
ORDER BY Customers.CustomerName;

Note: The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all records from the left table (Customers), even if
there are no matches in the right table (Orders).

SQL RIGHT JOIN Keyword

The RIGHT JOIN keyword returns all records from the right table (table2), and the
matched records from the left table (table1). The result is NULL from the left side, when
there is no match.

RIGHT JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table1
RIGHT JOIN table2
ON table1.column_name = table2.column_name;

Note: In some databases RIGHT JOIN is called RIGHT OUTER JOIN.

Demo Database
In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.

Below is a selection from the "Orders" table:

OrderID CustomerID EmployeeID OrderDate ShipperID

10308 2 7 1996-09-18 3

10309 37 3 1996-09-19 1

10310 77 8 1996-09-20 2
And a selection from the "Employees" table:
Employee
LastName FirstName BirthDate Photo
ID

1 Davolio Nancy 12/8/1968 EmpID1.pic

2 Fuller Andrew 2/19/1952 EmpID2.pic

3 Leverling Janet 8/30/1963 EmpID3.pic

SQL RIGHT JOIN Example

The following SQL statement will return all employees, and any orders they might have
placed:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT Orders.OrderID, Employees.LastName, Employees.FirstName

FROM Orders
RIGHT JOIN Employees ON Orders.EmployeeID = Employees.EmployeeID
ORDER BY Orders.OrderID;

Note: The RIGHT JOIN keyword returns all records from the right table (Employees), even
if there are no matches in the left table (Orders).

Test Yourself With Exercises

Choose the correct JOIN clause to select all the records from the Customers table plus all
the matches in the Orders table.

SELECT *
FROM Orders
__________
ON Orders.CustomerID=Customers.CustomerID;

SQL FULL OUTER JOIN Keyword

The FULL OUTER JOIN keyword returns all records when there is a match in left (table1)
or right (table2) table records.

Note: FULL OUTER JOIN can potentially return very large result-sets!

Tip: FULL OUTER JOIN and FULL JOIN are the same.

FULL OUTER JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table1
FULL OUTER JOIN table2
ON table1.column_name = table2.column_name
WHERE condition;
Demo Database
In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:

Customer Customer Contact Postal
Address City Country
ID Name Name Code

1 Alfreds Maria
Obere Str. 57 Berlin 12209 Germany
Futterkiste Anders

Ana
Trujillo Avda. de la
Ana México
2 Emparedad Constitución 05021 Mexico
Trujillo D.F.
os y 2222
helados

Antonio
Antonio Mataderos México
3 Moreno 05023 Mexico
Moreno 2312 D.F.
Taquería

And a selection from the "Orders" table:

OrderID CustomerID EmployeeID OrderDate ShipperID

10308 2 7 1996-09-18 3

10309 37 3 1996-09-19 1

10310 77 8 1996-09-20 2

The following SQL statement selects all customers, and all orders:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT Customers.CustomerName, Orders.OrderID

FROM Customers
FULL OUTER JOIN Orders ON Customers.CustomerID=Orders.CustomerID
ORDER BY Customers.CustomerName;

A selection from the result set may look like this:

CustomerName OrderID

Alfreds Futterkiste Null

Ana Trujillo
10308
Emparedados y helados

Antonio Moreno Taquería 10365

Note: The FULL OUTER JOIN keyword returns all matching records from both tables
whether the other table matches or not. So, if there are rows in "Customers" that do not
have matches in "Orders", or if there are rows in "Orders" that do not have matches in
"Customers", those rows will be listed as well.
SQL Self JOIN
A self JOIN is a regular join, but the table is joined with itself.

Self JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table1 T1, table1 T2
WHERE condition;

T1 and T2 are different table aliases for the same table.

Demo Database
In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:

CustomerID CustomerName ContactName Address City PostalCode Country

1 Alfreds Obere Str.

Maria Anders Berlin 12209 Germany
Futterkiste 57

Ana Trujillo Avda. de la

México
2 Emparedados y Ana Trujillo Constitución 05021 Mexico
D.F.
helados 2222

Antonio Moreno Antonio Mataderos México

3 05023 Mexico
Taquería Moreno 2312 D.F.

SQL Self JOIN Example

The following SQL statement matches customers that are from the same city:

SELECT A.CustomerName AS CustomerName1,

B.CustomerName AS CustomerName2, A.City
FROM Customers A, Customers B
WHERE A.CustomerID <> B.CustomerID
AND A.City = B.City
ORDER BY A.City;

The SQL UNION Operator

The UNION operator is used to combine the result-set of two or more SELECT statements.
 Each SELECT statement within UNION must have the same number of columns
 The columns must also have similar data types
 The columns in each SELECT statement must also be in the same order

UNION Syntax
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table1
UNION
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table2;
UNION ALL Syntax
The UNION operator selects only distinct values by default. To allow duplicate values, use
UNION ALL:

SELECT column_name(s) FROM table1

UNION ALL
SELECT column_name(s) FROM table2;

Note: The column names in the result-set are usually equal to the column names in the
first SELECT statement in the UNION.

Demo Database
In this tutorial we will use the well-known Northwind sample database.

Below is a selection from the "Customers" table:

CustomerID CustomerName ContactName Address City PostalCode Country

1 Alfreds Obere Str.

Maria Anders Berlin 12209 Germany
Futterkiste 57

Ana Trujillo Avda. de la

México
2 Emparedados y Ana Trujillo Constitución 05021 Mexico
D.F.
helados 2222

Antonio Moreno Antonio Mataderos México

3 05023 Mexico
Taquería Moreno 2312 D.F.

And a selection from the "Suppliers" table:

SupplierID SupplierName ContactName Address City PostalCode Country

49
Charlotte
1 Exotic Liquid Gilbert London EC1 4SD UK
Cooper
St.

P.O.
New Orleans New
2 Shelley Burke Box 70117 USA
Cajun Delights Orleans
78934

Grandma 707
Regina Ann
3 Kelly's Oxford 48104 USA
Murphy Arbor
Homestead Rd.

SQL UNION EXAMPLE

The following SQL statement returns the cities (only distinct values) from both the
"Customers" and the "Suppliers" table:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT City FROM Customers

UNION
SELECT City FROM Suppliers
ORDER BY City;
Note: If some customers or suppliers have the same city, each city will only be listed
once, because UNION selects only distinct values. Use UNION ALL to also select duplicate
values!

SQL UNION ALL EXAMPLE

The following SQL statement returns the cities (duplicate values also) from both the
"Customers" and the "Suppliers" table:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT City FROM Customers

UNION ALL
SELECT City FROM Suppliers
ORDER BY City;

SQL UNION with WHERE EXAMPLE

The following SQL statement returns the German cities (only distinct values) from both
the "Customers" and the "Suppliers" table:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT City, Country FROM Customers

WHERE Country='Germany'
UNION
SELECT City, Country FROM Suppliers
WHERE Country='Germany'
ORDER BY City;

ANOTER UNION EXAMPLE

The following SQL statement lists all customers and suppliers:

SELECT 'Customer' As Type, ContactName, City, Country

FROM Customers
UNION
SELECT 'Supplier', ContactName, City, Country
FROM Suppliers;

Notice the "AS Type" above - it is an alias. SQL Aliases are used to give a table or a
column a temporary name. An alias only exists for the duration of the query. So, here we
have created a temporary column named "Type", that list whether the contact person is a
"Customer" or a "Supplier".

The SQL GROUP BY Statement

The GROUP BY statement groups rows that have the same values into summary rows, like
"find the number of customers in each country".

The GROUP BY statement is often used with aggregate functions (COUNT, MAX, MIN, SUM,
AVG) to group the result-set by one or more columns.

GROUP BY Syntax
SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table_name
WHERE condition
GROUP BY column_name(s)
ORDER BY column_name(s);
Demo Database
Below is a selection from the "Customers" table in the Northwind sample database:
Customer Contact
CustomerName Address City PostalCode Country
ID Name

1 Alfreds Maria
Obere Str. 57 Berlin 12209 Germany
Futterkiste Anders

Ana Trujillo Avda. de la

Ana México
2 Emparedados y Constitución 05021 Mexico
Trujillo D.F.
helados 2222

Antonio Moreno Antonio Mataderos México

3 05023 Mexico
Taquería Moreno 2312 D.F.

4 Thomas 120 Hanover

Around the Horn London WA1 1DP UK
Hardy Sq.

Berglunds Christina Berguvsvägen

5 Luleå S-958 22 Sweden
snabbköp Berglund 8

SQL GROUP BY Examples

The following SQL statement lists the number of customers in each country:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT COUNT(CustomerID), Country

FROM Customers
GROUP BY Country;

The following SQL statement lists the number of customers in each country, sorted high
to low:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT COUNT(CustomerID), Country

FROM Customers
GROUP BY Country
ORDER BY COUNT(CustomerID) DESC;

Demo Database
Below is a selection from the "Orders" table in the Northwind sample database:

OrderID CustomerID EmployeeID OrderDate ShipperID

10248 90 5 1996-07-04 3

10249 81 6 1996-07-05 1

10250 34 4 1996-07-08 2
And a selection from the "Shippers" table:
ShipperID ShipperName

1 Speedy Express

2 United Package

Federal
3
Shipping

GROUP BY With JOIN Example

The following SQL statement lists the number of orders sent by each shipper:

EXAMPLE:

SELECT Shippers.ShipperName, COUNT(Orders.OrderID) AS NumberOfOrders FROM

Orders
LEFT JOIN Shippers ON Orders.ShipperID = Shippers.ShipperID
GROUP BY ShipperName;

Test Yourself with Exercises

List the number of customers in each country.

SELECT ___________ (CustomerID),

Country
FROM Customers
__________ ;