Final answer:
A full outer join is the term that describes the result of an inner join plus all the non-matching rows from both tables in a SQL database. It is useful for obtaining a complete view of all records when joining two tables.
Step-by-step explanation:
A student asks: "A ___ is: Give me the result of the inner join plus all the rows from tableA that have not been included, and all the rows from tableB." The answer to this question is a full outer join. In the context of SQL databases, a full outer join returns all records when there is a match in either tableA or tableB. If there's no match, the result is NULL on the side of the table without a match.
For example, if we're joining tableA and tableB based on a common field, the full outer join will return:
- All the rows from tableA that match rows in tableB.
- All the rows from tableA that do not have a match in tableB, with NULLs for columns from tableB.
- All the rows from tableB that do not have a match in tableA, with NULLs for columns from tableA.
This type of join is useful when you need a complete view of the records in both tables, regardless of whether they share common data.