Question

I was trying to write a query with inner join only if RepID of Table1 exists in Table2, if not do not join table2. With the query that i used below, i do not get from both the tables if repID doesnot exist in Table2. How is it possible? I am using sql server 2005. Thank you in advance!

Select * from Table1
inner join Table2 on Table1.RepID = Table2.RepID
where Table1.Date = @Date
order by Table1.Date desc

Answer 1

An inner join will only return a row if matches are found in both sides of the join. If you’re looking for something that will return all rows from Table1 but only records from Table2 when a match is found, you want a left outer join:

select * from Table1 as t1
left outer join Table2 as t2
    on t1.RepID = t2.RepID
where t1.Date = @Date
order by t1.Date desc