Filter Table Before Applying Left Join

Tom Jenkin picture Tom Jenkin · Feb 25, 2013 · Viewed 68.1k times · Source

I have 2 tables, I want to filter the 1 table before the 2 tables are joined together.

Customer Table:

   ╔══════════╦═══════╗
   ║ Customer ║ State ║
   ╠══════════╬═══════╣
   ║ A        ║ S     ║
   ║ B        ║ V     ║
   ║ C        ║ L     ║
   ╚══════════╩═══════╝

Entry Table:

   ╔══════════╦═══════╦══════════╗
   ║ Customer ║ Entry ║ Category ║
   ╠══════════╬═══════╬══════════╣
   ║ A        ║  5575 ║ D        ║
   ║ A        ║  6532 ║ C        ║
   ║ A        ║  3215 ║ D        ║
   ║ A        ║  5645 ║ M        ║
   ║ B        ║  3331 ║ A        ║
   ║ B        ║  4445 ║ D        ║
   ╚══════════╩═══════╩══════════╝

I want to Left Join so I get all records from the Customer table regardless of whether there are related records in the Entry table. However I want to filter on category D in the entry table before the join.

Desired Results:

   ╔══════════╦═══════╦═══════╗
   ║ Customer ║ State ║ Entry ║
   ╠══════════╬═══════╬═══════╣
   ║ A        ║ S     ║  5575 ║
   ║ A        ║ S     ║  3215 ║
   ║ B        ║ V     ║  4445 ║
   ║ C        ║ L     ║  NULL ║
   ╚══════════╩═══════╩═══════╝

If I was to do the following query:

   SELECT Customer.Customer, Customer.State, Entry.Entry
   FROM Customer
   LEFT JOIN Entry
   ON Customer.Customer=Entry.Customer
   WHERE Entry.Category='D'

This would filter out the last record.

So I want all rows from the left table and join it to the entry table filtered on category D.

Thanks to any help in advance!!

Answer

Taryn picture Taryn · Feb 25, 2013

You need to move the WHERE filter to the JOIN condition:

SELECT c.Customer, c.State, e.Entry
FROM Customer c
LEFT JOIN Entry e
   ON c.Customer=e.Customer
   AND e.Category='D'

See SQL Fiddle with Demo