Question

How do I write an Oracle query which is equivalent to the following Informix query?

select tab1.a,tab2.b,tab3.c,tab4.d 
  from table1 tab1,
       table2 tab2 OUTER (table3 tab3,table4 tab4,table5 tab5) 
 where tab3.xya = tab4.xya 
   AND tab4.ss = tab1.ss 
   AND tab3.dd = tab5.dd 
   AND tab1.fg = tab2.fg 
   AND tab4.kk = tab5.kk 
   AND tab3.desc = "XYZ"

I tried:

select tab1.a,tab2.b,tab3.c,tab4.d 
  from table1 tab1,
       table2 tab2 LEFT OUTER JOIN (table3 tab3,table4 tab4,table5 tab5) 
 where tab3.xya = tab4.xya 
   AND tab4.ss = tab1.ss 
   AND tab3.dd = tab5.dd 
   AND tab1.fg = tab2.fg 
   AND tab4.kk = tab5.kk 
   AND tab3.desc = "XYZ"

What is the correct syntax?

Answer 1

Write one table per join, like this:

select tab1.a,tab2.b,tab3.c,tab4.d 
from 
  table1 tab1
  inner join table2 tab2 on tab2.fg = tab1.fg
  left join table3 tab3 on tab3.xxx = tab1.xxx and tab3.desc = "XYZ"
  left join table4 tab4 on tab4.xya = tab3.xya and tab4.ss = tab3.ss
  left join table5 tab5 on tab5.dd = tab3.dd and tab5.kk = tab4.kk

Note that while my query contains actual left join, your query apparently doesn’t.
Since the conditions are in the where, your query should behave like inner joins. (Although I admit I don’t know Informix, so maybe I’m wrong there).

The specfific Informix extension used in the question works a bit differently with regards to left joins. Apart from the exact syntax of the join itself, this is mainly in the fact that in Informix, you can specify a list of outer joined tables. These will be left outer joined, and the join conditions can be put in the where clause. Note that this is a specific extension to SQL. Informix also supports ‘normal’ left joins, but you can’t combine the two in one query, it seems.

In Oracle this extension doesn’t exist, and you can’t put outer join conditions in the where clause, since the conditions will be executed regardless.

So look what happens when you move conditions to the where clause:

select tab1.a,tab2.b,tab3.c,tab4.d 
from 
  table1 tab1
  inner join table2 tab2 on tab2.fg = tab1.fg
  left join table3 tab3 on tab3.xxx = tab1.xxx
  left join table4 tab4 on tab4.xya = tab3.xya
  left join table5 tab5 on tab5.dd = tab3.dd and tab5.kk = tab4.kk
where
  tab3.desc = "XYZ" and
  tab4.ss = tab3.ss

Now, only rows will be returned for which those two conditions are true. They cannot be true when no row is found, so if there is no matching row in table3 and/or table4, or if ss is null in either of the two, one of these conditions is going to return false, and no row is returned. This effectively changed your outer join to an inner join, and as such changes the behavior significantly.

PS: left join and left outer join are the same. It means that you optionally join the second table to the first (the left one). Rows are returned if there is only data in the ‘left’ part of the join. In Oracle you can also right [outer] join to make not the left, but the right table the leading table. And there is and even full [outer] join to return a row if there is data in either table.