>Many thanks to all who replied.
>
>To summarize the responses............
>
>When I have
>
>SELECT fields FROM yyy LEFT JOIN xxx ON condition
>
>and later have a WHERE clause involving a field in yyy
>it essentially turns the query into an INNER JOIN
>
>is this right?
Nope, it turns to INNER JOIN only if in WHERE you reference XXX table.
And that is because NULLs can't be equal or different to anything even to NULLs.
Against Stupidity the Gods themselves Contend in Vain - Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
The only thing normal about database guys is their tables.