SQL LEFT JOIN

The SQL Left Join returns all the rows or records present in the Left table and matching rows from the right table. The visual representation of this joins is as shown below

From the above image, the Sql Left Outer join displays all the records present in Table1 and matching records from Table2. All the Unmatched rows from the right table will fill with NULL Values.

SQL LEFT JOIN Syntax

The syntax of the SQL Server Left Join is

-- Syntax
SELECT Table1.Column(s), Table2.Column(s),
FROM Table1
 LEFT OUTER JOIN
     Table2 ON
   Table1.Common_Column = Table2.Common_Column

--OR We can Simply Write it as
SELECT Table1. Column(s), Table2. Column(s),
FROM Table1
 LEFT JOIN
     Table2 ON
   Table1.Common_Column = Table2.Common_Column

The Left Outer join in SQL Server can also call as Left Join. So it is optional to use the Outer Keyword. For this example, We use the Employee is:

Department

SQL Left Join Select All Columns

The following Left Outer Join Query will display all the columns present in Employees, and matching records from Department tables

SELECT *
FROM [Employee]
 LEFT OUTER JOIN
     [Department] ON
 [Employee].[DepartID] = [Department].[id]

SQL Left Join avoid Outer keyword

Let me remove the Outer keyword, which is optional and it works well. As you can see, it returns rows from both the tables in the result set.

SELECT *
FROM [Employee]
 LEFT JOIN
     [Department] ON
 [Employee].[DepartID] = [Department].[id]

If you observe the above screenshot, We have 15 records in the Employee table. And the SQL Left Join is displaying 15 records, but for [DepartID], id, [Department Name], it is displaying NULL Values for ID numbers 10, 11, 14, and 15. It is because the Department Id for them in the Employee table is NULLS, so there are no matching records in the right table.

The [Department ID] column is repeated twice, which is annoying to the user. By selecting individual column names we can avoid unwanted ones. So, please avoid SELECT * Statements.

SQL Left Join Select Few Columns

Please place the required columns after the SELECT Statement to avoid unwanted Server columns in Joins

-- Select Few Columns Example
SELECT [FirstName]
      ,[LastName]
      ,[DepartmentName]
FROM [Employee]
  LEFT JOIN
     [Department] ON
  [Employee].[DepartID] = [Department].[id]

The above query work as long as the column names from both tables are different like above. If we have the identical Column names in both the tables, left join will throw an error. For instance, we are using the above query. But, we added id from the department table as an additional column.

SELECT [FirstName]
      ,[LastName]
      ,id
      ,[DepartmentName]
FROM [Employee]
LEFT OUTER JOIN
     [Department] ON
           [Employee].[DepartID] = [Department].[id]

As you can see, it is throwing an error: Ambiguous column name id. It is because the id is present in both the tables. And SQL Server doesn’t understand which column you are requesting it to retrieve.

To resolve this sort of issue, forever use the table name before the column name. The following left Outer Join query is using the ALIAS table name before the column names. By this method, we can inform the SQL Server that we are looking for id related to the department. We can rewrite the above query as:

SELECT Emp.[FirstName] AS [First Name]
      ,Emp.[LastName] AS [Last Name]
	  ,Dept.id 
      ,Dept.[DepartmentName] AS [Department Name]
FROM [Employee] AS Emp
LEFT JOIN
     [Department] AS Dept ON
          Emp.[DepartID] = Dept.[id]

The SQL Server Left Join also permits us to use Where Clause to limit the number of rows returned by it. Here, we use WHERE Clause along with this.

SELECT Emp.[FirstName] AS [First Name]
      ,Emp.[LastName] AS [Last Name]
      ,Dept.[DepartmentName] AS [Department Name]
FROM [Employee] AS Emp
LEFT JOIN
     [Department] AS Dept ON
          Emp.[DepartID] = Dept.[id]
WHERE Dept.[DepartmentName] IS NOT NULL

The Left Outer Join type allows us to use Order By Clause to rearrange the order of the records.

SELECT Emp.[FirstName] AS [First Name]
      ,Emp.[LastName] AS [Last Name]
      ,Dept.[DepartmentName] AS [Department Name]
FROM [Employee] AS Emp
 LEFT JOIN
     [Department] AS Dept ON
    Emp.[DepartID] = Dept.[id]
ORDER BY [DepartmentName] ASC