Question

Please help me with the following MySQL query, which joins two tables (A and B):

SELECT * from A
left join B on A.sid = B.sid
where (rCode = 1 Or rCode = 2 Or rCode = 3 Or rCode = 5)
AND (rYear = 2011 or rYear is null)

roleCode is a field in table A and rYear is a field in table B

The result set is not as expected. Only 185 rows are returned, but there are 629 rows in table A that match the where condition. Shouldn’t the rows without a matching row in table B be returned with null values for their B fields?

Answer 1

You should not specify rYear in a WHERE clause. Those limit your results after the join. You should specify rYear in an ON clause to get back records with NULL from table B.

SELECT * from A
left join B 
on A.sid = B.sid 
AND (rYear = 2011 or rYear is null)
where (rCode = 1 Or rCode = 2 Or rCode = 3 Or rCode = 5)