Difference in MySQL JOIN vs LEFT JOIN

Webnet picture Webnet · Mar 19, 2012 · Viewed 88.6k times · Source

I have this cross-database query...

SELECT
            `DM_Server`.`Jobs`.*,
            `DM_Server`.servers.Description AS server,
            digital_inventory.params,
            products.products_id,
            products.products_pdfupload,
            customers.customers_firstname,
            customers.customers_lastname
        FROM `DM_Server`.`Jobs`
        INNER JOIN `DM_Server`.servers ON servers.ServerID = Jobs.Jobs_ServerID
        JOIN `cpod_live`.`digital_inventory` ON digital_inventory.jobname = Jobs.Jobs_Name
        JOIN `cpod_live`.`products` ON products.products_pdfupload = CONCAT(digital_inventory.jobname, ".pdf")
        JOIN `cpod_live`.`customers` ON customers.customers_id = products.cID
        ORDER BY `DM_Server`.`Jobs`.Jobs_StartTime DESC LIMIT 50

it runs fine until I make them LEFT JOINs. I thought that by not specifying a type of join it was assumed to be a LEFT JOIN. Is this not the case?

Answer

Mark Byers picture Mark Byers · Mar 19, 2012

I thought that by not specifying a type of join it was assumed to be a LEFT JOIN. Is this not the case?

No, the default join is an INNER JOIN.

Here is a visual explanation of SQL joins.

Inner join

enter image description here

Left join

enter image description here