Difference in MySQL JOIN vs LEFT JOIN

I thought that by not specifying a type of join it was assumed to be a LEFT JOIN. Is this not the case?

No, the default join is an INNER JOIN.

Here is a visual explanation of SQL joins.

Inner join

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Left join

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No. When a type isn't specified, an INNER JOIN is used. To read up on differences; wikipedia


I believe the default is INNER JOIN if you just specify JOIN.