re: Outer Joins

reading from the text 'Fundamentals of Database Systems', by ELMASR/NAVATHE.... a set of operations, called OUTER JOINS, was proposed to be used when we want to keep all tuples in R or S or both in the result - whether or not they have matching tuples in the other relation. the LEFT OUTER JOIN operation keeps every tuple in the first or left relation R in R outer S; if no matching tupe is found in S, then the attributes of S in the result are filled or 'padded' with null values. the RIGHT OUTER JOIN operation, keeps every tuple in the second or right relation S in the result of R outer S. A third operation, FULL OUTER JOIN, keeps all tupes in both the left and right relations when no matching tuples are found, padding them with null values as needed. obviously, informix has implemented the LEFT OUTER JOIN operation. but enough academia; suffice it to say, that informix HAS implemented the OUTER JOIN as they have documented and it works as expected. -- regards, +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | . . | Bob Baskett | | ... ... | Software Engineer | | ..... ..... | Business Systems Integration Group | | .. ... .. | Semiconductor Products Sector | | . . . | Mesa, AZ | | | President, Informix Users Group Of Arizona | | Motorola, Inc. | | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Sun 690MP 4.1.3, Online 5.01, 4.10.UD1 Tools, Fourgen v4.10.UC1 | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+