Mastodawn

urig May 8, 2023

I like #MySQL very much. I've been using it for years to teach SQL to undergraduate students.

There are, however, quirks in MySQL that confuse the students and I would love to have either MySQL or MariaDB, or both, address them.

Here are two examples:

`SELECT * FROM capital INNER JOIN country;` effectively yields a CROSS JOIN. :/

`SELECT * FROM capital CROSS JOIN country ON capital.country_id = country.country_id;` effectively yields... you guessed it: an INNER join.

Oy vey...

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urig

If I could have things my way, I would change MySQL to let users "fall into the pit of success". I.e., I would make it throw an error on both examples.

An INNER JOIN doesn't make any sense without an ON clause much the same way a CROSS JOIN with one makes no sense.

Sometimes throwing an error is the best thing you can do for your users.

#footguns