A basic sql query problem

Suppose we get two following tables:

Table A:
[USER_ID] [varchar] (11) NOT NULL ,
[COURSE_ID] [varchar] (11) NOT NULL ,

Table B:

[COURSE_ID] [varchar] (11) NOT NULL ,
[COURSE_NAME] [varchar] (50) NOT NULL ,
[COURSE_NO] [varchar] (15) NULL ,
[BEGIN_DATE] [datetime] NULL ,
[END_DATE] [datetime] NULL ,
[CREATER] [varchar] (11) NOT NULL ,

and during the execution of my program, I can get the current use's id (USER_ID), sayU0001.

How can I retrieve the result set containing[COURSE_NAME],[COURSE_ID],but the current user's id (U0001) have Not been assigned in Table A.

Thanks in advance.

Ricky.

if u know what the course will be taken by the userid U0001 then just query from table B and insert the data of user in the table A.say u want to assign the user U0001 to "Eng01" query with select course_id,course_name from tableB where course_name ='Eng01' and then assign this course_id and user_id to tableA...it is not clear to me that what u wants to do ?|||

Are you talking about joining between two table?

If yes, try SELECT TableA.User_ID, TableB.CourseID, TableB.Course_Name FROM TableB LEFT OUTER JOIN TableA ON TableA.CourseID = TableB.CourseID

I haven't test it yet, but try searching for "LEFT OUTER JOIN" if it doesn't work.

Hope that help.

|||

Sorry for my unclear description of my question first.

And nr2ea, you provide me helpful hint.

I have one more question: is there any difference between LEFT JOIN and LEFT OUTER JOIN?

Ricky.