---
title: "MySQL OUTER JOIN syntax error"  
description: "MySQL OUTER JOIN syntax error"  
author: "Revati S Misra"  
published: 2023-07-27  
updated: 2023-07-28  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159328/mysql-outer-join-syntax-error  
category: "mysql"  
tags: ["database", "mysql", "join"]  
reading_time: 2 minutes  

---

# MySQL OUTER JOIN syntax error

[MySQL](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12156/what-is-mysql) [OUTER JOIN](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/33754/how-to-use-sql-full-outer-join) [syntax error](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159599/what-is-a-syntax-error-in-sql-give-an-example)

## Replies

### Reply by Aryan Kumar

MySQL does not support the `OUTER JOIN` keyword. Instead, you can use the `LEFT JOIN`, `RIGHT JOIN`, or `FULL JOIN` keywords to achieve the same results.

The `LEFT JOIN` keyword returns all rows from the left table, even if there are no matching rows in the right table. The `RIGHT JOIN` keyword returns all rows from the right table, even if there are no matching rows in the left table. The `FULL JOIN` keyword returns all rows from both tables, even if there are no matching rows in the other table.

For example, the following SQL statement will use a `LEFT JOIN` to return all products, even if they do not have a corresponding category:

SQL

```plaintext
SELECT *
FROM products
LEFT JOIN categories
ON products.category_id = categories.id;
```

This will return all rows from the `products` table, even if there are no matching rows in the `categories` table. The `categories` table will only be included in the results if there is a matching row in the `products` table.

Here is an example of how to use the `LEFT JOIN` keyword in MySQL:

SQL

```plaintext
CREATE TABLE products (
  id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
  price INT NOT NULL,
  category_id INT,
  PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

CREATE TABLE categories (
  id INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  name VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
  PRIMARY KEY (id)
);

INSERT INTO products (name, price, category_id) VALUES
('Product 1', 100, 1),
('Product 2', 200, 2),
('Product 3', 300, NULL);

INSERT INTO categories (name) VALUES
('Category 1'),
('Category 2');

SELECT *
FROM products
LEFT JOIN categories
ON products.category_id = categories.id;
```

This will return the following result:

```plaintext
id | name | price | category_id | name
------+------+-------+--------------+
1 | Product 1 | 100 | 1 | Category 1
2 | Product 2 | 200 | 2 | Category 2
3 | Product 3 | 300 | NULL | NULL
```

As you can see, the `LEFT JOIN` keyword has returned all rows from the `products` table, even if they do not have a corresponding category. The `categories` table will only be included in the results if there is a matching row in the `products` table.


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Original Source: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/159328/mysql-outer-join-syntax-error

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