> Looking in the Informix manuals, I now see how they handle
> complex outer
> joins:
>
> SELECT *
> FROM tab1, OUTER(tab2, tab3)
> WHERE tab1.col1 = tab2.col1 AND
> tab2.col1 = tab3.col1
>
> It does the tab2, tab3 join first, then _outer_ joins to tab1.
> Interesting.
Ok, just to clarify:
this select gives at least one row for every row in tab1
if an inner join on tab2, tab3 does not give a match (tab1.col1=tab2.col1)
all columns of tab2 and tab3 are set to null for that row.
If that is what you said, I didn't understand it.
Andreas