left outer join

Does anyone know the status of outer join
with respect to PostgreSQL 6.4?

I'm in dire need of just LEFT OUTER JOIN
as I need to report which records approx 30,000
per day, no longer exist, which are new, and
which have been updated.  The three ways I know
of simulating the affects are too slow:

    1. use a UNION clause with NOT IN
    2. create a function() to return the missing
        field, else NULL
    - or -

    3. Programmatically determine if the record
        does not exist for each record in
        question.

If anyone knows the status of outer join queries,
please let me know.

Thanks,

Marcus Mascari (mascarim@yahoo.com)





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