Re: Outer join problem

"s. hunter" wrote:
>
> Sorry, Pierre, I don't think I explained myself very well!
>
> The results I want returned are all the descriptions in table B,
> together with their values from table A (the numerical column), but only
> if the seqid in A is equal to a given value, otherwise I want a null.
>
> So what you suggest would work in that case because it depends on a
> seqid being present in both cases (I think!)
>

Well, it sure is a strange query, but I guess I understand now I think you want

SELECT a.seqid, b.description, a.numerical_column from a, b
where a.catid(+)=b.catid
and a.seqid(+)='12345'
order by b.description
/

works with the example somebody else posted

I.e.

SQL> l
  1 SELECT e.sal, d.loc, e.hiredate
  2 from emp e, dept d
  3 where e.deptno(+)=d.deptno
  4* and e.sal(+)='1500'
SQL> /        SAL LOC HIREDATE
---------- ------------- ---------

           NEW YORK
           DALLAS
      1500 CHICAGO       08-SEP-81
           BOSTON