need to return the result .. even if join has no value

[severndigital]

I am trying to pull data from a table and join information only if it exists. can it be done?

 

my example

SELECT pap.*,res.total_sheets FROM paper_inventory pap
				INNER JOIN paper_reserve res
				ON res.paper_id = pap.id 
				WHERE pap.rec_num = '49'

 

in this case .. the result runs correctly since there is a res.paper_id that matches pap.id.

 

however in other cases, there may not be an entry for it in res. Is there a way to make this query return the results even if res does not contain the paper id?

[severndigital]

answered my own question .. i needed an outer join.

SELECT pap.*,res.total_sheets FROM paper_inventory pap
				LEFT OUTER JOIN paper_reserve res
				ON res.paper_id = pap.id 
				WHERE pap.rec_num = '49'

did the trick