Outer Joins

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. ..." __ || ======= **** **T* ======= ||John Regep || **** **** ||Store Systems Developement || **** *R** ||Kmart Corporation || =========== ********* =========== ||3100 West Big Beaver || ***A* **** ||Troy, MI 48084 || **** **** ||(810) 643-5078 ||=============== *M** **** ===============||uunet!kmart!jregep