Tablespec

This clause of the SELECT statement specifies the source tables from which to retrieve the data.

Syntax:

 table [alias][, table [alias][, ...]]

 table [alias] joinspec table [alias] ON joinpredicate
  [ joinspec table [alias] ON joinpredicate ...]

The parts of this clause have the following meaning:

Part Meaning

table A source table from which the data is to be retrieved.

alias An alias for the table, usually to differentiate it from another instance of the same source table

joinspec Syntax: INNER | LEFT | RIGHT JOIN
INNER JOIN returns only rows that match the criteria in both tables
LEFT JOIN returns all rows from the left table and inserts nulls into the appropriate fields where no matching row exists in the right table
RIGHT JOIN returns all rows from the right table and inserts nulls into the appropriate fields where no matching row exists in the left table

joinpredicate A condition on which the tables are joined

Example usage:

 SELECT FirstName, LastName
 FROM Contact

 SELECT DISTINCT A.Name AS Manager, B.Name AS Subordinate
 FROM Payroll A INNER JOIN Payroll B ON A.ID = B.Supervisor

[Return to SQL Syntax]

Part	Meaning
table	A source table from which the data is to be retrieved.
alias	An alias for the table, usually to differentiate it from another instance of the same source table
joinspec	Syntax: INNER \| LEFT \| RIGHT JOIN INNER JOIN returns only rows that match the criteria in both tables LEFT JOIN returns all rows from the left table and inserts nulls into the appropriate fields where no matching row exists in the right table RIGHT JOIN returns all rows from the right table and inserts nulls into the appropriate fields where no matching row exists in the left table
joinpredicate	A condition on which the tables are joined