MySQL Joining Tables

A JOIN clause is used to combine rows from two or more tables, based on a related column between them.

Let's look at a selection from the "Orders" table:

OrderID	CustomerID	OrderDate
10308	2	1996-09-18
10309	37	1996-09-19
10310	77	1996-09-20

Then, look at a selection from the "Customers" table:

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Country
1	Alfreds Futterkiste	Maria Anders	Germany
2	Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados	Ana Trujillo	Mexico
3	Antonio Moreno Taquería	Antonio Moreno	Mexico

Notice that the "CustomerID" column in the "Orders" table refers to the "CustomerID" in the "Customers" table. The relationship between the two tables above is the "CustomerID" column.

Then, we can create the following SQL statement (that contains an INNER JOIN), that selects records that have matching values in both tables:

Example

SELECT Orders.OrderID, Customers.CustomerName, Orders.OrderDate
FROM Orders
INNER JOIN Customers ON Orders.CustomerID=Customers.CustomerID;

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and it will produce something like this:

OrderID	CustomerName	OrderDate
10308	Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados	9/18/1996
10365	Antonio Moreno Taquería	11/27/1996
10383	Around the Horn	12/16/1996
10355	Around the Horn	11/15/1996
10278	Berglunds snabbköp	8/12/1996

Supported Types of Joins in MySQL

• INNER JOIN: Returns records that have matching values in both tables
• LEFT JOIN: Returns all records from the left table, and the matched records from the right table
• RIGHT JOIN: Returns all records from the right table, and the matched records from the left table
• CROSS JOIN: Returns all records from both tables