---
title: "What is the difference between Join and Inner Join?"  
description: "What is the difference between Join and Inner Join?"  
author: "Revati S Misra"  
published: 2023-07-11  
updated: 2023-07-12  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159029/what-is-the-difference-between-join-and-inner-join  
category: "mssql server"  
tags: ["mssql server", "sql server", "sql"]  
reading_time: 2 minutes  

---

# What is the difference between Join and Inner Join?

What is the [difference](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/157114/good-news-or-bad-news-and-the-difference-is) between Join and [Inner Join](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/33572/sql-inner-join-keyword)?

## Replies

### Reply by Aryan Kumar

The main difference between [join](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/1487/join-sleep-and-interrupt-methods-in-c-sharp-threading) and inner join is that join is a generic term for combining data from two or more tables, while inner join is a specific type of join that only returns rows where there is a match in both tables.

Here is a table that summarizes the differences between join and inner join:

| Feature | Join | Inner join |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Returns all rows from both tables | Yes | No |
| Returns only rows where there is a match in both tables | No | Yes |
| Used when you want to combine data from two or more tables | Yes | Yes |
| Used when you want to return only rows where there is a match in both tables | No | Yes |

For example, the following code will join the `Customers` and `Orders` tables:

SQL

```plaintext
SELECT *
FROM Customers
JOIN Orders
ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID;
```

This code will return all rows from the `Customers` table, even if there are no matching rows in the `Orders` table.

The following code will inner join the `Customers` and `Orders` tables:

SQL

```plaintext
SELECT *
FROM Customers
INNER JOIN Orders
ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID;
```

This code will only return rows from the `Customers` table where there is a matching row in the `Orders` table.

The `INNER JOIN` keyword is the most common type of join, and it is the default join type in most SQL databases.


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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159029/what-is-the-difference-between-join-and-inner-join

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