Last answered:

03 Oct 2019

Posted on:

03 Oct 2019

0

CROSS JOIN and JOIN together

Hello!   In the last example, I do not understand why you are combining a CROSS JOIN and a JOIN… Couldn’t you just use a CROSS JOIN to connect all three tables? I’m referring to the following query, as shown in the video:   SELECT     e.*, d.* FROM     departments d         CROSS JOIN     dept_manager dm         JOIN     employees e ON dm.emp_no = e.emp_no WHERE     d.dept_no <> dm.dept_no ORDER BY dm.emp_no , d.dept_no;   Thanks! Pablo
1 answers ( 0 marked as helpful)
Instructor
Posted on:

03 Oct 2019

0

Hi Dulce!
 
Another great observation from your side!
 
Well, since in our database, 'dept_manager' data and 'employees' data are matched perfectly, both versions of this query (i.e. yours and ours) deliver the same output.
 
However, if this was not the case, we would have preferred to use JOIN since we would have not wanted our output to 'explode' in case there was more information in the 'employees' table about each manager, as stored in the 'dept_manager' table. The latter could be obtained by using a CROSS JOIN only.
 
So, in theoretical (and not practical) terms, JOIN is the more secure choice.
 
However, once again, in our example, using any of the two delivers the correct outcome.
 
Good observation!
 
Best,
365 Team

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