MySQL LEFT JOIN

MySQL LEFT JOIN Keyword

The LEFT JOIN keyword retrieves all records from the left table (table1) and the matching records (if any) from the right table (table2).

img_left_join

LEFT JOIN Syntax

SELECT column_name(s)
FROM table1
LEFT JOIN table2
ON table1.column_name = table2.column_name;

Demo Database

In this tutorial, we’ll work with the popular Northwind sample database.

Here is a section of the “Customers” table:

CustomerID	CustomerName	ContactName	Address	City	PostalCode	Country
1	Alfreds Futterkiste	Maria Anders	Obere Str. 57	Berlin	12209	Germany
2	Ana Trujillo Emparedados y helados	Ana Trujillo	Avda. de la Constitución 2222	México D.F.	05021	Mexico
3	Antonio Moreno Taquería	Antonio Moreno	Mataderos 2312	México D.F.	05023	Mexico

And here is a section of the “Orders” table:

OrderID	CustomerID	EmployeeID	OrderDate	ShipperID
10308	2	7	1996-09-18	3
10309	37	3	1996-09-19	1
10310	77	8	1996-09-20	2

MySQL LEFT JOIN Example

The following SQL statement selects all customers along with any orders they might have:

Example

SELECT Customers.CustomerName, Orders.OrderID
FROM Customers
LEFT JOIN Orders ON Customers.CustomerID = Orders.CustomerID
ORDER BY Customers.CustomerName;

Note: The LEFT JOIN keyword returns all records from the left table (Customers), including those that have no matches in the right table (Orders).