Re: What is (+) in where clause

From: Mark D Powell <Mark.Powell_at_eds.com>
Date: 25 Jul 2003 12:13:17 -0700
Message-ID: <2687bb95.0307251113.665f58ff@posting.google.com>

stephencmyers_at_hotmail.com (Steve Myers) wrote in message news:<3e0c4493.0307250653.3b3d7951_at_posting.google.com>...
> I'm porting some Oracle views to SQL Server. Not being a Oracle dba,
> I'm having a problem with the syntax in one of the views. In a view, I
> see this in one of the where clauses:
>
> where x.field = y.field(+)
>
>
> What does the (+) do? Is this some function?
>
> Thanks

The plus sign, +, is the Oracle pre-ANSI 1992 Outer Join syntax. You can find it documented in the SQL Manual under Outer Join Queries. Basically you place the plus on the table that should return null rows when no match is found so that the other table (x in your example) would receive a matching row and hence be returned by the query. Or in other words if I want to see every row in table X place the plus sign on table Y.

HTH -- Mark D Powell -- Received on Fri Jul 25 2003 - 14:13:17 CDT