Question

Can anyone please explain to me why the following two queries yield different results?

SELECT
    o.*
FROM
    Customer c
LEFT JOIN 
    [Order] o ON o.CustomerID = c.CustomerID AND o.OrderType = 'Cash'
WHERE
    c.Country = 'USA'

SELECT
    o.*
FROM
    Customer c
LEFT JOIN 
    [Order] o ON o.CustomerID = c.CustomerID
WHERE
    c.Country = 'USA'
AND
    o.OrderType = 'Cash'

Thanks.

Answer 1

The first one allows the order to be NULL, because it’s a left join.
The second one doesn’t, as it checks the value of o.OrderType after the join.

The equivalent would be (assuming OrderType can’t be NULL)

SELECT
    o.*
FROM
    Customer c
LEFT JOIN 
    [Order] o ON o.CustomerID = c.CustomerID
WHERE
    c.Country = 'USA'
AND
    (o.OrderType = 'Cash' OR o.OrderType IS NULL)