🌐 FULL JOIN – Show All Rows from Both Tables, Matched or Not

(because sometimes you need everything from both sides)

🔧 Quick Syntax

SELECT columns
FROM table1
FULL JOIN table2
ON table1.column = table2.column;

This says:
“Give me all rows from both tables, and match anything where possible. If there’s no match, show NULL.”

👀 Imagine You Have These Two Tables

🧑 employees table:

emp_id	name
1	Olivia
2	Mason
3	Zoe

🛠️ projects table:

project_id	emp_id	project_name
201	1	Website
202	2	App
203	4	Database

Now, you want to know which employees are assigned to projects, but you also want to see any employees who aren’t assigned, and any projects without employees.

🔧 FULL JOIN Syntax

SELECT employees.name, projects.project_name
FROM employees
FULL JOIN projects
ON employees.emp_id = projects.emp_id;

SQL will give you everything from both tables.
If there’s no match, you get NULL.

✅ Result

name	project_name
Olivia	Website
Mason	App
Zoe	NULL
NULL	Database

Notice:
– Zoe is an employee, but doesn’t have a project, so she’s shown with NULL for project_name.
– The Database project doesn’t have a matching employee, so it’s shown with NULL for name.

🔁 LEFT JOIN vs RIGHT JOIN vs FULL JOIN

Type	Who’s Shown
LEFT JOIN	All rows from the left, matches from the right
RIGHT JOIN	All rows from the right, matches from the left
FULL JOIN	All rows from both tables, matches or not

🧃 Recap

• FULL JOIN gives you all rows from both tables, with NULL for missing matches
• Use FULL JOIN when you need everything from both tables — whether or not there’s a match