How can we distinguish between MySQL CROSS JOIN and INNER JOIN?

We can distinguish between MySQL CROSS JOIN and INNER JOIN only on the basis of join-predicate i.e. the condition specified. While writing the query for INNER JOIN we need to specify the condition but in contrast, we do not need to specify the condition while writing a query for CROSS JOIN. To understand it, we are taking the example of two tables named tbl_1 and tbl_2 which are having following data −

mysql> Select * from tbl_1;
+----+--------+
| Id | Name |
+----+--------+
| 1  | Gaurav |
| 2  | Rahul  |
| 3  | Raman  |
| 4  | Aarav  |
+----+--------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> Select * from tbl_2;
+----+---------+
| Id | Name    |
+----+---------+
| A  | Aarav   |
| B  | Mohan   |
| C  | Jai     |
| D  | Harshit |
+----+---------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Now, the query for INNER JOIN can be as follows −

mysql> SELECT tbl_1.id,tbl_2.id FROM tbl_1 JOIN tbl_2 ON tbl_1.name = tbl_2.name;
+----+----+
| id | id |
+----+----+
| 4  | A  |
+----+----+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Now, if we will write the above query without specifying the condition then it would become CROSS JOIN. The query without condition is as follows −

mysql> Select tbl_1.id, tbl_2.id FROM tbl_1 JOIN tbl_2;
+----+----+
| id | id |
+----+----+
| 1  | A  |
| 2  | A  |
| 3  | A  |
| 4  | A  |
| 1  | B  |
| 2  | B  |
| 3  | B  |
| 4  | B  |
| 1  | C  |
| 2  | C  |
| 3  | C  |
| 4  | C  |
| 1  | D  |
| 2  | D  |
| 3  | D  |
| 4  | D  |
+----+----+
16 rows in set (0.00 sec)

seetha

Updated on: 20-Jun-2020

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