Why do we need an optional keyword OUTER in SQL?

Question

LEFT JOIN and LEFT OUTER JOIN works exactly the same way. Which means the keyword OUTER has no effect or it is optional.

Why do we include a keyword which has no effect in execution?

OUTER optional pointer { INNER | { { LEFT | RIGHT | FULL } [ OUTER ] } } — Stanislav Kundii, Nov 03 '17 at 10:35
@a_hourse_with_no_name it is not a duplicate question. I know OUTER is optional. my point is that why do we include a keyword which has no effect in execution? — Yogesh H Shenoy, Nov 03 '17 at 11:04

score 3 · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-06T10:57:05.463

3

It is optional, I always assumed that it was originally there as its more descriptive.

However it doesn't actually mean anything as a join is either inner, left, right or full - so the outer key word can be inferred to be relevant for all but inner joins.

edited Nov 06 '17 at 10:57

answered Nov 03 '17 at 10:42

Why do we need an optional keyword OUTER in SQL?

1 Answers1