Question

I have several tables (to be exact, 7) tables I cross join in one another. This part gives me some problems;

Table “Actions”

 -----------------------------------------
| ID | Package ID | Action Type | Message |
 -----------------------------------------
| 40 | 100340     | 0           | OK      |
| 41 | 100340     | 12          | Error   |
| 42 | 100340     | 2           | OK      |

| 43 | 100341     | 4           | OK      |
| 44 | 100341     | 0           | Error   |
| 45 | 100341     | 12          | OK      |
 -----------------------------------------

Table “Packages”

 ----------------------
| ID     | Name        |
 ----------------------
| 100340 | Testpackage |
| 100341 | Package xy  |
 ----------------------

I accomplished cross joingin thm, but when there is no Package with an ID specified in Actions, all actions on that package are completely missing, rather than just leavin Name blank – which is what I’m trying to get.

So, if a reference is missing, just leave the corresponding joined column blank or as an empty string…:

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
| Package ID | Name        | Action 0 | Action 2 | Action 4 | Action 12 |
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
| 100340     | Testpackage | OK       | OK       |          | Error     |
| 100341     | Package xy  | Error    |          | OK       | OK        |
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

How is that possible?

Edit

Sorry, I just saw my example was completety wrong, I updated it how it should look like in the end.

My current query looks something like this (as said above, just an extract as the actual one is about three times as long including even more tables)

SELECT
 PackageTable.ID AS PackageID,
 PackageTable.Name,
 Action0Table.Message  AS Action0,
 Action2Table.Message  AS Action2,
 Action4Table.Message  AS Action4,
 Action12Table.Message AS Action12
FROM
 Packages AS PackageTable LEFT OUTER JOIN
  Actions AS Action0Table ON PackageTable.ID  = Action0Table.PackageID LEFT OUTER JOIN
  Actions AS Action2Table ON PackageTable.ID  = Action2Table.PackageID LEFT OUTER JOIN
  Actions AS Action4Table ON PackageTable.ID  = Action4Table.PackageID LEFT OUTER JOIN
  Actions AS Action12Table ON PackageTable.ID = Action12Table.PackageID
WHERE
 Action0Table.ActionType  = 0 AND
 Action2Table.ActionType  = 2 AND
 Action4Table.ActionType  = 4 AND
 Action12Table.ActionType = 12

Answer 1

As what the others has said, I have the same answer.

Just showing u the different result

declare @Actions table(id int , packageid int, actiontype int,dt date)
declare @Packages table(id int,name varchar(50))
insert into @Actions 
    select 40,100340,0,'2009/01/01 3:00pm' union all
    select 41,100340,12,'2009/01/01 5:00pm' union all
    select 42,100340,2,'2009/01/01 5:30pm' union all
    select 43,100341, 4,'2009/01/02 8:00am'
insert into @Packages 
    select 100340,'Testpackage'

Left outer join query

select a.packageid,p.name,a.actiontype,a.dt
from @Actions a
left join @Packages p
on a.packageid = p.id

Full join(in this case u will get the same result)

select a.packageid,p.name,a.actiontype,a.dt
from @Actions a
full join @Packages p
on a.packageid = p.id

Output:

packageid   name    actiontype  dt
100340  Testpackage 0   2009-01-01
100340  Testpackage 12  2009-01-01
100340  Testpackage 2   2009-01-01
100341  NULL    4   2009-01-02

Inner join query(which u don’t want)

select a.packageid,p.name,a.actiontype,a.dt
from @Actions a
join @Packages p
on a.packageid = p.id

Output:

packageid   name    actiontype  dt
100340  Testpackage 0   2009-01-01
100340  Testpackage 12  2009-01-01
100340  Testpackage 2   2009-01-01