SQL Server JOIN missing NULL values

Question

Suppose I had the following 2 tables:

      Table1:                                Table2:
Col1:      Col2:     Col3:             Col1:       Col2:       Col4:
a          b         c                 a           b           d
e          <null>    f                 e           <null>      g
h          i         j                 h           i           k
l          <null>    m                 l           <null>      n
o          <null>    p                 o           <null>      q

Now, I want to join these tables on Col1 and Col2 and bring back the entire set to look like:

     Result:
Col1:      Col2:     Col3:     Col4:
a          b         c         d
e          <null>    f         g
h          i         j         k
l          <null>    m         n
o          <null>    p         q

So, I tried a SQL like:

SELECT Table1.Col1, Table1.Col2, Table1.Col3, Table2.Col4
FROM Table1
INNER JOIN Table2
    ON Table1.Col1 = Table2.Col1 
    AND Table1.Col2 = Table2.Col2

But it isn't matching the NULL values in Col2, so I end up with:

     Result:
Col1:      Col2:     Col3:     Col4:
a          b         c         d
h          i         j         k

How can I get the result I am looking for??

Thanks!

Answer 1

You can be explicit about the joins:

SELECT Table1.Col1, Table1.Col2, Table1.Col3, Table2.Col4
FROM Table1 INNER JOIN
     Table2
      ON (Table1.Col1 = Table2.Col1 or Table1.Col1 is NULL and Table2.Col1 is NULL) AND
         (Table1.Col2 = Table2.Col2 or Table1.Col2 is NULL and Table2.Col2 is NULL)

In practice, I would be more likely to use coalesce() in the join condition:

SELECT Table1.Col1, Table1.Col2, Table1.Col3, Table2.Col4
FROM Table1 INNER JOIN
     Table2
     ON (coalesce(Table1.Col1, '') = coalesce(Table2.Col1, '')) AND
        (coalesce(Table1.Col2, '') = coalesce(Table2.Col2, ''))

Where '' would be a value not in either of the tables.

Just a word of caution. In most databases, using any of these constructs prevents the use of indexes.

Answer 2

Use Left Outer Join instead of Inner Join to include rows with NULLS.

SELECT Table1.Col1, Table1.Col2, Table1.Col3, Table2.Col4
FROM Table1
LEFT OUTER JOIN Table2 
    ON Table1.Col1 = Table2.Col1 
    AND Table1.Col2 = Table2.Col2

For more information, see here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190409(v=sql.105).aspx