Re: Outer Joins

kmart!jregep@uunet.uu.net wrote: > > > Malcolm Weallans writes: > >Jonathan Leffler has pontificated on the OUTER JOIN situation. > >From what he has said the INFORMIX implementation of OUTER JOIN presedes > >SQL-92. To change the INFORMIX product to match SQL-92 would probably > >mean that all applications implemented before the change would need to be > >completely retested, as the OUTER JOIN handling would need to be > >significantly changed. > > Can anyone help me find 'SQL-92' is it published by ASCII, ANSI, IEEE, > ISO or someone else? > > From other discussions is sounded like Informix is implementing what is > called a 'LEFT OUTER JOIN' and is implementing it correctly. Is > 'LEFT OUTER JOIN' defined prior to 'SQL-92' or what? > > IMHO, The problem we all face is this:- > Different RDBMS's can return different results when using OUTER JOIN. > In a C/S app, our client applications should work without knowing the > vendor on the other (server) end. > > Malcolm is right, but I'd go one step further: > "We put pressure on [ALL RDBMS] to change OUTER JOIN code to match SQL-92 > - and accept the hit on program development that the changed... > > "Questions like this need to be raised, and we need a public discussion on > the benefits or otherwise of the change. ..." > If Informix has something called an "outer join" which is different than a standard "left outer join" then why can't it supply the latter as an additional feature without affecting the former. Just a thought...