Difference Between on and Where Clauses in SQL Table Joins

In SQL / MySQL, what is the difference between ON and WHERE in a join statement?

WHERE is a part of the SELECT query as a whole, ON is a part of each individual join.

ON can only refer to the fields of previously used tables.

When there is no actual match against a record in the left table, LEFT JOIN returns one record from the right table with all fields set to NULLS. WHERE clause then evaluates and filter this.

In your query, only the records from gifts without match in 'sentgifts' are returned.

Here's the example

gifts

1   Teddy bear
2   Flowers

sentgifts

1   Alice
1   Bob

---
SELECT  *
FROM    gifts g
LEFT JOIN
        sentgifts sg
ON      g.giftID = sg.giftID

---

1  Teddy bear   1     Alice
1  Teddy bear   1     Bob
2  Flowers      NULL  NULL    -- no match in sentgifts

---
SELECT  *
FROM    gifts g
LEFT JOIN
        sentgifts sg
ON      g.giftID = sg.giftID
WHERE   sg.giftID IS NULL

---

2  Flowers      NULL  NULL    -- no match in sentgifts

As you can see, no actual match can leave a NULL in sentgifts.id, so only the gifts that had not ever been sent are returned.

SQL JOIN - WHERE clause vs. ON clause

They are not the same thing.

Consider these queries:

SELECT *
FROM Orders
LEFT JOIN OrderLines ON OrderLines.OrderID=Orders.ID
WHERE Orders.ID = 12345

and

SELECT *
FROM Orders
LEFT JOIN OrderLines ON OrderLines.OrderID=Orders.ID 
    AND Orders.ID = 12345

The first will return an order and its lines, if any, for order number 12345.

The second will return all orders, but only order 12345 will have any lines associated with it.

With an INNER JOIN, the clauses are effectively equivalent. However, just because they are functionally the same, in that they produce the same results, does not mean the two kinds of clauses have the same semantic meaning.

What's the difference between where clause and on clause when table left join?

The where clause applies to the whole resultset; the on clause only applies to the join in question.

In the example supplied, all of the additional conditions related to fields on the inner side of the join - so in this example, the two queries are effectively identical.

However, if you had included a condition on a value in the table in the outer side of the join, it would have made a significant difference.

You can get more from this link: http://ask.sqlservercentral.com/questions/80067/sql-data-filter-condition-in-join-vs-where-clause

For example:

select t1.f1,t2.f2 from t1 left join t2 on t1.f1 = t2.f2 and t2.f4=1

select t1.f1,t2.f2 from t1 left join t2 on t1.f1 = t2.f2 where t2.f4=1

- do different things - the former will left join to t2 records where f4 is 1, while the latter has effectively been turned back into an inner join to t2.

Difference between and and where in joins

Firstly there is a semantic difference. When you have a join, you are saying that the relationship between the two tables is defined by that condition. So in your first example you are saying that the tables are related by cd.Company = table2.Name AND table2.Id IN (2728). When you use the WHERE clause, you are saying that the relationship is defined by cd.Company = table2.Name and that you only want the rows where the condition table2.Id IN (2728) applies. Even though these give the same answer, it means very different things to a programmer reading your code.

In this case, the WHERE clause is almost certainly what you mean so you should use it.

Secondly there is actually difference in the result in the case that you use a LEFT JOIN instead of an INNER JOIN. If you include the second condition as part of the join, you will still get a result row if the condition fails - you will get values from the left table and nulls for the right table. If you include the condition as part of the WHERE clause and that condition fails, you won't get the row at all.

Here is an example to demonstrate this.

Query 1 (WHERE):

SELECT DISTINCT field1
  FROM table1 cd
  LEFT JOIN table2
    ON cd.Company = table2.Name
 WHERE table2.Id IN (2728);

Result:

field1
200

Query 2 (AND):

SELECT DISTINCT field1
  FROM table1 cd
  LEFT JOIN table2
    ON cd.Company = table2.Name
   AND table2.Id IN (2728);

Result:

field1
100
200

Test data used:

CREATE TABLE table1 (Company NVARCHAR(100) NOT NULL, Field1 INT NOT NULL);
INSERT INTO table1 (Company, Field1) VALUES
('FooSoft', 100),
('BarSoft', 200);

CREATE TABLE table2 (Id INT NOT NULL, Name NVARCHAR(100) NOT NULL);
INSERT INTO table2 (Id, Name) VALUES
(2727, 'FooSoft'),
(2728, 'BarSoft');

Difference between ON and WHERE clauses in SQL table joins

The main difference is when you are using different joins.

Typically you should see the same result if you were to use inner joins, but once you start using LEFT joins the results will change.

Have a look at the following example

SQL Fiddle DEMO

And have a look at the following article (very explanatory)

EDIT for @ShannonSeverance

Schema and Test data

CREATE TABLE Table1 (
  ID INT,
  Val VARCHAR(20)
 );

INSERT INTO Table1 VALUES (1,'a');
INSERT INTO Table1 VALUES (2,'a');

CREATE TABLE Table2 (
  ID INT,
  Val VARCHAR(20)
 );

INSERT INTO Table2 VALUES (1,'a');

and Tests

SELECT t1.ID,
t1.Val,
t2.ID ID2,
t2.Val Val2
FROM Table1 t1 INNER JOIN
Table2 t2 ON t1.ID = t2.ID AND t1.Val = t2.Val;

SELECT  t1.ID,
t1.Val,
t2.ID ID2,
t2.Val Val2
FROM Table1 t1,Table2 t2 
WHERE t1.ID = t2.ID
 AND t1.Val = t2.Val;

SELECT  t1.ID,
t1.Val,
t2.ID ID2,
t2.Val Val2
FROM Table1 t1 LEFT JOIN
Table2 t2 ON t1.ID = t2.ID  AND t1.Val = t2.Val;

SELECT  t1.ID,
t1.Val,
t2.ID ID2,
t2.Val Val2
FROM Table1 t1 LEFT JOIN
Table2 t2 ON t1.ID = t2.ID  
WHERE t1.Val = t2.Val;

Difference between where and and clause in join sql query

Base on the following two test result

select a.id, a.name,a.country from table a left join table b
on a.id = b.id
where a.name is not null 

is faster (237 Vs 460). As far as I know, it is a standard.

Difference between inner join and where in select join SQL statement

One difference is that the first option hides the intent by expressing the join condition in the where clause.

The second option, where the join condition is written out is more clear for the user reading the query. It shows the exact intent of the query.

As far as performance or any other difference, there shouldn't be any. Both queries should return the exact same result and perform the same under most RDBMS.

SQL LEFT JOIN: difference between WHERE and condition inside AND

with a left join there is a difference

with condition on left join rows with column > 10 will be there filled with nulls

with where condition rows will be filtered out

with a inner join there is no difference

example:

declare @t table (id int, dummy varchar(20))
declare @a table (id int, age int, col int)

insert into @t
select * from (
values 
    (1, 'pippo'    ),
    (2, 'pluto'    ),
    (3, 'paperino' ),
    (4, 'ciccio'   ),
    (5, 'caio'     ),
    (5, 'sempronio')
) x (c1,c2)

insert into @a
select * from (
values 
    (1, 38, 2 ),
    (2, 26, 5 ),
    (3, 41, 12),
    (4, 15, 11),
    (5, 39, 7 )
) x (c1,c2,c3)

select t.*, a.age
from @t t
left join @a a on t.ID = a.ID and a.col > 10

Outputs:

id  dummy       age
1   pippo       NULL
2   pluto       NULL
3   paperino    41
4   ciccio      15
5   caio        NULL
5   sempronio   NULL

While

select t.*, a.age
from @t t
left join @a a on t.ID = a.ID
where a.col > 10

Outputs:

id  dummy       age
3   paperino    41
4   ciccio      15

So with LEFT JOIN you will get ALWAYS all the rows from 1st table

If the join condition is true, you will get columns from joined table filled with their values, if the condition is false their columns will be NULL

With WHERE condition you will get only the rows that match the condition.

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