left join turns into inner join

sql

SELECT
a.foo
b.bar
c.foobar
FROM tableOne AS a
INNER JOIN tableTwo AS b ON a.pk = b.fk
LEFT JOIN tableThree AS c ON b.pk = c.fk
WHERE a.foo = 'something'
AND c.foobar = 'somethingelse'

Having the and clause after the where clause seems to turn the left join into an inner join. The behavior i am seeing is if there isnt 'somethingelse' in tableThree there will be 0 rows returned.

If i move c.foobar = 'somethingelse' into the join clause the stored join will act like a left join.

    SELECT
    a.foo
    b.bar
    c.foobar
    FROM tableOne AS a
    INNER JOIN tableTwo AS b ON a.pk = b.fk
    LEFT JOIN tableThree AS c ON b.pk = c.fk
    AND c.foobar = 'somethingelse'
    WHERE a.foo = 'something'

Can someone point me at some documentation describing why this happens? THank you very much

Solution 1:

It's because of your WHERE clause.

Whenever you specify a value from the right side of a left join in a WHERE clause (which is NOT NULL), you necessarily eliminate all of the NULL values and it essentially becomes an INNER JOIN.

If you write, AND (c.foobar = 'somethingelse' OR c.foobar IS NULL) that will solve the problem.

You can also move the c.foobar portion into your join predicate, and that too will solve the issue.

Solution 2:

The reason you're seeing this is because the left join sets all columns of c to NULL for those rows that don't exist in c (i.e. that can't be joined). This implies that the comparison c.foobar = 'somethingelse' is not true, which is why those rows are not being returned.

In the case where you move the c.foobar = 'somethingelse' into the join condition, that join is still returning those rows (albeit with NULL values) when the condition is not true.

Solution 3:

The 'where' clause is performed after the join. This doesn't matter for inner joins but matters for outer joins.

Shorten Example

SELECT b.bar,c.foobar FROM tableTwo AS b LEFT JOIN tableThree AS c ON b.pk=c.fk WHERE c.foobar='somethingelse'

Raw data                  Outer Join Result        Select Result
b.pk c.fk c.foorbar       b.pk c.fk c.foorbar      c.foorbar
1    1    something       1    1    something      <not in result set>
1    1    somethingelse   1    1    somethingelse  somethingelse


SELECT b.bar,c.foobar FROM tableTwo AS b LEFT JOIN tableThree AS c ON b.pk=c.fk AND c.foobar='somethingelse'

Raw data                  Outer Join Result        Select Result
b.pk c.fk c.foorbar       b.pk c.fk c.foorbar      c.foorbar
1    1    something       1    null null           null
1    1    somethingelse   1    1    somethingelse  somethingelse

left join turns into inner join

Solution 1:

Solution 2:

Solution 3:

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