What is the difference between MySQL’s inner join and o…
MySQL offers two different ways of querying data through inner joins and outer joins.
INNER JOIN is a type of join that connects two tables based on a common field and returns only the rows that meet the specified criteria. It only returns rows that have matching values in both tables.
An outer join is a type of join that is based on a common field between two tables, and returns the rows that meet the condition as well as any unmatched rows. Outer joins can be categorized as left outer join, right outer join, and full outer join.
- The LEFT JOIN returns all rows from the left table along with any matching rows from the right table, and it returns NULL values if there are no matching rows in the right table.
- A RIGHT JOIN returns all rows from the right table plus any matching rows from the left table, and if there are no matching rows in the left table, it returns NULL values.
- A FULL JOIN returns all rows from both the left and right tables, and if there are any unmatched rows between the two tables, it returns NULL values.
In summary, inner joins only return rows that match in both tables, while outer joins return rows that match in both tables as well as any unmatched rows.