how to deteck empty tables in outer joins

From: Einar Karttunen <ekarttun(at)cs(dot)Helsinki(dot)FI>
To: <pgsql-novice(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: how to deteck empty tables in outer joins
Date: 2001-02-01 11:58:58
Message-ID: Pine.LNX.4.30.0102011347430.24468-100000@melkinpaasi.cs.Helsinki.FI
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Im trying to do an outerjoin of two tables. The second one might be
empty. Normally I would use a query like:

CREATE TABLE a ( id INTEGER );
CREATE TABLE b ( id INTEGER );

SELECT * FROM a,b
WHERE a.id=b.id
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM a,b
WHERE a.id NOT IN (b.id)
;

If the seconf table is empty the result is null, because the cartesian
product of table and null is null. What I want is to include a condition
that if b has no rows then just add null for the value of b ie.
SELECT *,NULL FROM a; How can I implement this?

- Einar Karttunen

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