No Result Set From Tables Joined with Outer Then Inner Join

• Microsoft Query for Windows, version 1.0
• Microsoft Query for Windows 95, version 2.0

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Query, when you create a query that contains two tables that are joined with an outer join, followed by an inner join, and the outer join does not return any records from the second table, the resulting data set will be empty (that is, the Data pane will not contain any records) even if the inner join would normally return data.

CAUSE

When an inner join follows an outer join, the inner join attempts to retrieve records from the result set created by the outer join. If the result set from the outer join contains no records from the second table, then there are no records from the second table to compare in the inner join.

If you look at the SQL query statement that is generated by your query, you will see that the records in the FROM clause (created by the outer join) are the result set from which the WHERE clause (created by the inner join) operates.

STATUS

This behavior is by design in Microsoft Query.

REFERENCES

"Microsoft Query User's Guide," version 1.0, Chapter 6