Top 1 with a left join

Question

Given the query below there might be multiple rows in dps_markers with the same marker key but we only want to join against the first. If I take this query and remove the top 1 and ORDER BY I get a value for mbg.marker_value but run as it is it always returns null

SELECT u.id, mbg.marker_value 
FROM dps_user u
LEFT JOIN 
    (SELECT TOP 1 m.marker_value, um.profile_id
     FROM dps_usr_markers um (NOLOCK)
         INNER JOIN dps_markers m (NOLOCK) 
             ON m.marker_id= um.marker_id AND 
                m.marker_key = 'moneyBackGuaranteeLength'
     ORDER BY m.creation_date
    ) MBG ON MBG.profile_id=u.id 
WHERE u.id = 'u162231993'

Answer 1

Use OUTER APPLY instead of LEFT JOIN:

SELECT u.id, mbg.marker_value 
FROM dps_user u
OUTER APPLY 
    (SELECT TOP 1 m.marker_value, um.profile_id
     FROM dps_usr_markers um (NOLOCK)
         INNER JOIN dps_markers m (NOLOCK) 
             ON m.marker_id= um.marker_id AND 
                m.marker_key = 'moneyBackGuaranteeLength'
     WHERE um.profile_id=u.id 
     ORDER BY m.creation_date
    ) AS MBG
WHERE u.id = 'u162231993';

Unlike JOIN, APPLY allows you to reference the u.id inside the inner query.