Traps & Trick QuestionsMedium

When does a LEFT JOIN silently become an INNER JOIN?

Seen at: Meta · Uber · DoorDash

You want all users, whether or not they’ve placed orders. You write:

SELECT u.id, o.total
FROM users u
LEFT JOIN orders o ON o.user_id = u.id
WHERE o.status = 'paid';

A user with no orders disappears from the result. Why?

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