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Overview

JOIN clause is used to create a new table by combining records and using common fields between two tables in a database.

We support table aliasing used in the JOIN clause.

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Syntax

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a) Basic Syntax

The following is the syntax of the JOIN clause:

SELECT table_1.column_1, table_2.column_2...
FROM table_1
JOIN table_2
ON table_1.common_filed = table_2.common_field

  1. SELECT table_1.column_1, table_2.column_2... will select the columns to be displayed from both tables.

  2. FROM table_1 JOIN table_2 represents the joined tables.

  3. ON table_1.common_filed = table_2.common_field compares each row of table_1 with each row of table_2 to find all pairs of rows that meet the join-common field.

  4. When the join-common field is met, column values for each matched pair of rows from table_1 and table_2 are combined into a result row.

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b) Syntax with an Alias

You can use table aliasing to refer to the table’s name. An alias is a temporary name given to a table, column, or expression in a query.

The results will stay the same, but it can help you to write the query easier. 

SELECT left.column_1, right.column_2...
FROM table_1 as left
JOIN table_2 as right
ON left.common_filed = right.common_field

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Examples

Before we move on, let us assume two tables:

movies table

CREATE TABLE movies (
  movie_id int,
  movie_name string,
  category_id int
);
INSERT INTO movies
    (movie_id, movie_name, category_id)
VALUES
    (201011, 'The Avengers', 181893),
    (200914, 'Avatar', 181894),
    (201029, 'Shutter Island', 181891),
    (201925, 'Tune in Your Love', 181892);

SELECT * FROM movies;

It will create a table as shown below: 

+------------+-----------------------+--------------+
| movie_id   | movie_name            | category_id  |
+------------+-----------------------+--------------+
| 201011     | The Avengers          | 181893       |
| 200914     | Avatar                | 181894       |
| 201029     | Shutter Island        | 181891       |
| 201925     | Tune in Your Love     | 181892       |
+------------+-----------------------+--------------+

categories table

CREATE TABLE categories (
  id int,
  category_name string
);
INSERT INTO categories
    (id, category_name)
VALUES
    (181891, 'Psychological Thriller'),
    (181892, 'Romance'),
    (181893, 'Fantasy'),
    (181894, 'Science Fiction'),
    (181895, 'Action');

SELECT * FROM categories;

It will create a table as shown below:

+--------------+-----------------------+
| id        | category_name            |
+-----------+--------------------------+
| 181891    | Psychological Thriller   |
| 181892    | Romance                  |
| 181893    | Fantasy                  |
| 181894    | Science Fiction          |
| 181895    | Action                   |
+-----------+--------------------------+
  1. Based on the above tables, we can write a JOIN query as follows:
SELECT a.movie_name, c.category_name
FROM movies AS a
JOIN categories AS c
ON a.category_id = c.id;
  1. The above query will give the following result:
+-----------------------+---------------------------+
| movie_name            | category_name             |
+-----------------------+---------------------------+
| Shutter Island        | Psychological Thriller    |
| Tune in Your Love     | Romance                   |
| The Avengers          | Fantasy                   |
| Avatar                | Science Fiction           |
+-----------------------+---------------------------+

The JOIN checks each row of the category_id column in the first table (movies) with the value in the id column of each row in the second table (categories).

If the values are equal, it will create a new row that contains columns from both tables (category_name) and adds the new row (movie_name) to the result set.

Below is the Venn diagram based on the example:

join

FROMLEFT JOIN