Using the example:
SELECT '' AS "xxx", *
FROM J1_TBL LEFT OUTER JOIN J2_TBL USING (i);

..doesn't work because the columns which I am using to join the tables don't have the same name. How do i specify the columns if they don't have the same name?

Poul L. Christiansen

Tom Lane wrote:
"Poul L. Christiansen" <poulc@cs.auc.dk> writes:
But how do I make an outer join? 
What's the syntax?
I will RTFM if someone points me to the docs :-)

I'm afraid I haven't updated the FM yet :-( ... but you could look at
the examples in the JOIN regress test, src/test/regress/sql/join.sql.

Or, from the SQL92 spec, here's the grammar:

<from clause> ::= FROM <table reference> [ { <comma> <table reference> }... ]

<table reference> ::=
<table name> [ [ AS ] <correlation name>
[ <left paren> <derived column list> <right paren> ] ]
| <derived table> [ AS ] <correlation name>
[ <left paren> <derived column list> <right paren> ]
| <joined table>

<derived table> ::= <table subquery>

<derived column list> ::= <column name list>

<column name list> ::=
<column name> [ { <comma> <column name> }...