Compatibility of joins

In Transact-SQL, joins appear in the WHERE clause, using the following syntax:

start of select, update, insert, delete, or subquery
   FROM { table-list | view-list } WHERE [  NOT  ]
   [ table-name.| view name.]column-name
      join-operator
   [ table-name.| view-name.]column_name
   [ {  AND  |  OR  } [  NOT  ]
   [ table-name.| view-name.]column_name
      join-operator
   [ table-name.| view-name.]column-name ]...
end of select, update, insert, delete, or subquery

The join-operator in the WHERE clause may be any of the comparison operators, or may be either of the following outer-join operators:

  • *=   Left outer join operator

  • =*   Right outer join operator

SQL Anywhere supports the Transact-SQL outer join operators as an alternative to the native SQL/2003 syntax. You cannot mix dialects within a query. This rule applies also to views used by a query—an outer-join query on a view must follow the dialect used by the view-defining query.

Note

Support for Transact-SQL outer join operators *= and =* is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.

For information about joins in SQL Anywhere and in the ANSI/ISO SQL standards, see Joins: Retrieving data from several tables, and FROM clause.

For more information about Transact-SQL compatibility of joins, see Transact-SQL outer joins (*= or =*).

See also