Question

so I’m trying to do a full join on MS Access 2003 but just found out it did not support it. So I tried taking my two select statements and then joining one using LEFT join and making a UNION with the same statement but with a RIGHT join. Access gave me an error saying that there is something wrong with the JOIN command. Heres some sql…

SELECT tbl_Vendors.VendorName, tbl_Inventory.ItemNum, 
tbl_Inventory.Color,  tbl_Inventory.InInventory, 
tbl_Inventory.OutInventory, 
(tbl_Inventory.Stocks +   tbl_Inventory.InInventory - 
tbl_Inventory.OutInventory) AS Balance,  
tbl_Inventory.Weight, tbl_Inventory.CF,   
(tbl_Inventory.Weight *Balance) AS TotalWeight, 
(tbl_Inventory.CF * Balance) AS TotalCF, 
tbl_Inventory.NoteOrder, tbl_ItemHistory.orderDate, 
tbl_ItemHistory.POHistory, tbl_ItemHistory.InorOut, 
tbl_ItemHistory.Unit
FROM (tbl_Vendors INNER JOIN tbl_Inventory 
    ON tbl_Vendors.vid = tbl_Inventory.VendorID)
LEFT JOIN tbl_ItemHistory 
ON tbl_Inventory.ItemNum = tbl_ItemHistory.ItemNum
ORDER BY tbl_Inventory.ItemNum, tbl_ItemHistory.orderDate 

sorry if this is not in code format, access sql i guess is just normal text. this one is with only the left join. if you have any ideas, please say so. Thanks!

edit: 2 step joins,

SELECT tbl_Vendors.VendorName, tbl_Inventory.ItemNum, tbl_Inventory.Color, 
tbl_Inventory.InInventory, tbl_Inventory.OutInventory, 
(tbl_Inventory.Stocks+tbl_Inventory.InInventory-tbl_Inventory.OutInventory) AS Balance, 
tbl_Inventory.Weight, tbl_Inventory.CF, (tbl_Inventory.Weight*Balance) AS TotalWeight,    
(tbl_Inventory.CF*Balance) AS TotalCF, tbl_Inventory.NoteOrder, tbl_ItemHistory.orderDate, 
tbl_ItemHistory.POHistory, tbl_ItemHistory.InorOut, tbl_ItemHistory.Unit
FROM (tbl_Vendors INNER JOIN tbl_Inventory ON tbl_Vendors.vid = tbl_Inventory.VendorID) LEFT JOIN
tbl_ItemHistory ON tbl_Inventory.ItemNum = tbl_ItemHistory.ItemNum;
UNION ALL
SELECT tbl_Vendors.VendorName, tbl_Inventory.ItemNum, tbl_Inventory.Color, 
tbl_Inventory.InInventory, tbl_Inventory.OutInventory, 
(tbl_Inventory.Stocks+tbl_Inventory.InInventory-tbl_Inventory.OutInventory) AS Balance, 
tbl_Inventory.Weight, tbl_Inventory.CF, (tbl_Inventory.Weight*Balance) AS TotalWeight,    
(tbl_Inventory.CF*Balance) AS TotalCF, tbl_Inventory.NoteOrder, tbl_ItemHistory.orderDate, 
tbl_ItemHistory.POHistory, tbl_ItemHistory.InorOut, tbl_ItemHistory.Unit
FROM (tbl_Vendors INNER JOIN tbl_Inventory ON tbl_Vendors.vid = tbl_Inventory.VendorID) RIGHT  
JOIN tbl_ItemHistory ON tbl_Inventory.ItemNum = tbl_ItemHistory.ItemNum;

error: join expression not supported. The first piece of code was good for left outer join. i tried two left joins and that worked. its just not taking my right join…

Answer 1

Your ultimate goal is to emulate a FULL OUTER JOIN, but your first hurdle is that Access’ database engine complains about your LEFT JOIN attempt. You need to first create a workable JOIN, and I can’t spot what’s wrong with the sample you provided.

Does Access accept this simplified version?

SELECT *
FROM
    (tbl_Vendors AS vend
    INNER JOIN tbl_Inventory AS inv
    ON vend.vid = inv.VendorID)
    LEFT JOIN tbl_ItemHistory AS hist
    ON inv.ItemNum = hist.ItemNum;

For the moment, we’re not concerned about the field list or ORDER BY … simply whether that query works without error and returns the correct rows.

If it does work, see whether this RIGHT JOIN returns the remaining rows you need.

SELECT *
FROM
    (tbl_Vendors AS vend
    INNER JOIN tbl_Inventory AS inv
    ON vend.vid = inv.VendorID)
    RIGHT JOIN tbl_ItemHistory AS hist
    ON inv.ItemNum = hist.ItemNum
WHERE inv.ItemNum Is Null;

You may need to change the WHERE clause; that was untested air code. But if that also works, combine the 2 queries into one:

SELECT *
FROM
    (tbl_Vendors AS vend
    INNER JOIN tbl_Inventory AS inv
    ON vend.vid = inv.VendorID)
    LEFT JOIN tbl_ItemHistory AS hist
    ON inv.ItemNum = hist.ItemNum
UNION ALL
SELECT *
FROM
    (tbl_Vendors AS vend
    INNER JOIN tbl_Inventory AS inv
    ON vend.vid = inv.VendorID)
    RIGHT JOIN tbl_ItemHistory AS hist
    ON inv.ItemNum = hist.ItemNum
WHERE inv.ItemNum Is Null;