Left outer join

One of the join kinds available in the Merge dialog box in Power Query is a left outer join, which keeps all the rows from the left table and brings in any matching rows from the right table. For more information, go to Merge operations overview.

Diagram shows the left table with Date, CountryID, and Units columns. The emphasized CountryID column contains values of 1 in rows 1 and 2, 3 in row 3, and 4 in row 4. The diagram shows the left table that contains ID and Country columns. The emphasized ID column contains values of 1 in row 1 (denoting USA), 2 in row 2 (denoting Canada), and 3 in row 3 (denoting Panama). A table below the first two tables contains Date, CountryID, Units, and Country columns. The table has four rows, with the top two rows containing the data for CountryID 1, a row for CountryID 3, and a row for Country ID 4. Since the right table didn't contain an ID of 4, the value of the fourth row in the Country column contains null.

This article uses sample data to show how to do a merge operation with the left outer join. The sample source tables for this example are:

• Sales: This table includes the fields Date, CountryID, and Units. CountryID is a whole number value that represents the unique identifier from the Countries table.

  

• Countries: This table is a reference table with the fields ID and Country. The ID field represents the unique identifier for each record.

  

  Countries table with ID set to 1 in row 1, 2 in row 2, and 3 in row 3, and Country set to USA in row 1, Canada in row 2, and Panama in row 3.

In this example, you merge both tables, with the Sales table as the left table and the Countries table as the right one. The join is made between the following columns.

Field from the Sales table	Field from the Countries table
CountryID	ID

The goal is to create a table like the following, where the name of the country appears as a new Country column in the Sales table as long as the CountryID exists in the Countries table. If there are no matches between the left and right tables, a null value is the result of the merge for that row. In the following image, this null value is shown to be the case for CountryID 4, which was brought in from the Sales table.

To do a left outer join:

1. Select the Sales query, and then select Merge queries.
2. In the Merge dialog box, under Right table for merge, select Countries.
3. In the Sales table, select the CountryID column.
4. In the Countries table, select the ID column.
5. In the Join kind section, select Left outer.
6. Select OK.

From the newly created Countries column, expand the Country field. Don't select the Use original column name as prefix check box.

After performing this operation, you create a table that looks like the following image.