What is the join type that returns all rows from the left entity even if there is no match in the right entity?

The join type that is used to return all rows from the left entity, even when there are no matching rows in the right entity, is known as a LEFT JOIN. This type of join includes every record from the left table in the result set. When there is no corresponding match found in the right table, the result will still include a row from the left table, but the columns from the right table will contain NULL values for those unmatched records.

For instance, if you have a table of customers (the left entity) and a table of orders (the right entity), using a LEFT JOIN to combine these tables will give you a complete list of all customers, along with their orders if they have any. If a customer has not placed any orders, they will still appear in your results, but the order columns will show NULL.

This behavior is different from INNER JOIN, which only returns rows that have matches in both tables. Similarly, a RIGHT JOIN returns all rows from the right table and matches from the left, while a FULL OUTER JOIN combines the results of both left and right joins, including all records from both entities regardless of whether there are matches. Thus, the LEFT JOIN is the distinct choice for ensuring all records from the left entity