I've been using a lot of union clauses in my sql lately to simulate left outer joins (btw, thanks, Mr. Levy).

So basically my syntax has been:
Select invent.item_id, items.desc ;
from invent, items ;
where invent.item_id = items.item_id ;
union ;
select invent.item_id, " " as desc ;
from invent ;
where invent.item_id not in (select item_id from items)

(but you guys knew that already, didn't you :) ).

So now I find myself needing to do a union where the "placeholder" (" " as desc in the example above) is a memo field. What do I use for a placeholder for something like that?

Thanks!