Outer Joins

[Dennis Hancy]

I am trying to create an outer join between two tables in a query that
includes several other tables.

When I double-click on the Join line, it presents three join options:

1) ONLY records from table1 and table2 where join fields are equal
2) ALL values from table1 and ONLY records from table2 where join
fields are equal
3) ALL values from table2 and ONLY records from table1 where join
fields are equal

In my case, I want option 2 - all values from table1, and if there is
no match to table2, I want a blank to appear in the output.

When I select this option, I get the following error:

"Can't have outer joins if there are more than two tables in the
query."

How can I get around this, since there are other tables in my query?

Thanks.
Dennis Hancy
Eaton Corporation
Cleveland, OH

[David Portas]

This sounds like a limitation of the GUI application you are using to create
the query. Use Query Analyzer instead. Perhaps you can paste your SQL query
into QA and edit it.

Alternatively, if you are creating a view, Enterprise Manager's view
designer doesn't suffer from this particular restriction but it does have
other limitations so Query Analyzer is probably the best choice if you're
willing and able to write the query yourself.

--
David Portas
SQL Server MVP
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