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Types of Join in SQL Server

Nirav Prabtani, 20 Jan 2014

CPOL

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4.81 23 votes

Types of join in SQL Server for fetching records from multiple tables.

Introduction
In this tip, I am going to explain about types of join.

What is join??
An SQL JOINclause is used to combine rows from two or more tables, based on a common field between
them.
There are many types of join.
Inner Join
1. Equijoin
2. Natural Join
Outer Join
1. Left outer Join
2. Right outer join
3. Full outer join
Cross Join
Self Join

Using the Code

Joinis very useful to fetching records from multiple tables with reference to common column between
them.
http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/712941/TypesofJoininSQLServer

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To understand joinwith example, we have to create two tables in SQL Server database.
1. Employee
Hide Copy Code

createtableEmployee(

idintidentity(1,1)primarykey,
Usernamevarchar(50),
FirstNamevarchar(50),
LastNamevarchar(50),
DepartIDint

2. Departments
Hide Copy Code

createtableDepartments(

idintidentity(1,1)primarykey,
DepartmentNamevarchar(50)

Now fill Employeetable with demo records like that.

Fill Departmenttable also like this....

1 Inner Join
The join that displays only the rows that have a match in both the joined tables is known as inner join.
Hide Copy Code

selecte1.Username,e1.FirstName,e1.LastName,e2.DepartmentName_
fromEmployeee1innerjoinDepartmentse2one1.DepartID=e2.id
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It gives matched rows from both tables with reference to DepartIDof first table and id of second table like
this.

EquiJoin
Equi join is a special type of joinin which we use only equality operator. Hence, when you make a query for
joinusing equality operator, then that joinquery comes under Equi join.
Equi join has only = operator in joincondition.
Equi join can be inner join, left outer join, right outer join.
Check the query for equijoin:
Hide Copy Code

SELECT*FROMEmployeee1JOINDepartmentse2ONe1.DepartID=e2.id

2 Outer Join
Outer join returns all the rows of both tables whether it has matched or not.
We have three types of outer join:
1. Left outer join
2. Right outer join
3. Full outer join
a Left Outer join
Left join displays all the rows from first table and matched rows from second table like that..
Hide Copy Code

SELECT*FROMEmployeee1LEFTOUTERJOINDepartmentse2
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ONe1.DepartID=e2.id

Result:

b Right outer join

Right outer join displays all the rows of second table and matched rows from first table like that.
Hide Copy Code

SELECT*FROMEmployeee1RIGHTOUTERJOINDepartmentse2
ONe1.DepartID=e2.id

Result:

3 Full outer join

Full outer join returns all the rows from both tables whether it has been matched or not.
Hide Copy Code

SELECT*FROMEmployeee1FULLOUTERJOINDepartmentse2
ONe1.DepartID=e2.id

Result:

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3 Cross Join
A cross join that produces Cartesian product of the tables that are involved in the join. The size of a Cartesian
product is the number of the rows in the first table multiplied by the number of rows in the second table like
this.
Hide Copy Code

SELECT*FROMEmployeecrossjoinDepartmentse2

You can write a query like this also:

Hide Copy Code

SELECT*FROMEmployee,Departmentse2

4 Self Join
Joining the table itself called self join. Self join is used to retrieve the records having some relation or
similarity with other records in the same table. Here, we need to use aliases for the same table to set a self
join between single table and retrieve records satisfying the condition in whereclause.
Hide Copy Code

SELECTe1.Username,e1.FirstName,e1.LastNamefromEmployeee1_
innerjoinEmployeee2one1.id=e2.DepartID

Here, I have retrieved data in which idand DepartIDof employeetable has been matched:

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Points of Interest
Here, I have taken one example of self join in this scenario where manager name can be retrieved by
manageridwith reference of employee id from one table.
Here, I have created one table employeeslike that:

If I have to retrieve manager name from manager id, then it can be possible by Self join:
Hide Copy Code

selecte1.empNameasManagerName,e2.empNameasEmpName_
fromemployeese1innerjoinemployeese2one1.id=e2.managerid

Result:

History
20 Jan 2014: Initial post

License
This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License
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About the Author

Nirav Prabtani
Web Developer Satva Infotech
India

Nirav Prabtani
I am a software engineer at Satva Infotech, Database Architect and Designer /Technical
Architect/Analyst
Programmer in Microsoft .NET Technologies & Microsoft SQL Server with more than
2 years of hands on experience.

I love to code....!!!
My recent past includes my work with the education domain as a technical business
requirement analyst, database architect & designer and analyst programmer; just
love my involvement with the world of knowledge, learning and education and I think
I know quite well what I want to do in life & in my career. What do I like? Well,
ideation, brainstorming, coming up with newer and more creative ways of doing things;
each time with an enhanced efficiency. An item in my day's agenda always has a task
to look at what I did yesterday & focus on how I can do it better today

Contact Me
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Nirav Prabtani

Mobile : +91 738 308 2188

Email : niravjprabtani@gmail.com
My Blog:
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Adition things About Natual join.

ashu_om 10Nov14 18:02
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Thanks Nirav for simple description , i wann add about natual join few bit on the same aritical.
Natural Join :
SELECT * FROM Emp NATURAL JOIN Dept it implicitly compar by Dept_id because the common
column in the table
Natural join is a type of equi join which occurs implicitly by comparing all the same names columns in
both tables. The join result have only one column for each pair of equally named columns.
Ashutosh Soni
Software Engineer
MumbaiIndia

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My vote of 5
Sibeesh KV 19Sep14 19:43
5
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5.00/5 1 vote

My vote of 5
Animesh Datta 21May14 22:13
Nice Tip ... but where is the exampleoutput of Cross Join .
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5.00/5 1 vote

Re: My vote of 5
Nirav Prabtani 26May14 20:49
thank you for +5 and i don't think there is need of example for cross join but you can see the
example at..
Cross join
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Join in sql server

Member 9954224 24Apr14 5:53
Join is used to combine two or more table in a single table on the basis of condition or without
condition.
Suppose we have two tables
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1. Employee We have two field in this table Emp_Id,Emp_Name

2. Emp_Department We have three filed in this table Id,Emp_id,Emp_dept
If we want to fetch Emp_Dept with Emp_name than we have to use Join keyword in our query.
I am ging to write some Example I hope you will Like this.
http://nirajtiwari.com/joinsqlservertypesjoin/[^]
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1.00/5 7 votes

Some points
Christian Graus 20Jan14 14:17
A self join is an inner join, it's not really a join type. You should also mention that self joins can be
quite expensive.
"SELECT * FROM Employee e1 JOIN Departments e2 ON e1.DepartID = e2.id " is just an inner join. An
equi join is not standard SQL and looks like this:
SELECT * FROM Employee e1,Departments e2 WHERE e1.DepartID = e2.id
It's VERY expensive, as the , operator does a cross join and then the WHERE clause filters it down.
Christian Graus
My new article series is all about SQL !!!

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Re: Some points

Nirav Prabtani 21Jan14 2:34
Thank you very much for this points
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