Which join type returns all rows from the first table and pairs with every row of the second table?

Which join type returns all rows from the first table and pairs with every row of the second table?

• A. Inner Join
• B. Cross Joins
• C. Left (or Right) Join
• D. Full joins

Answer: (B)

Cross join is the Cartesian product of the two tables: it returns every possible pairing of a row from the first table with a row from the second table, with no join condition. This means you get as many result rows as the product of the two tables’ row counts (for example, 3 rows in the first table and 4 in the second yield 12 rows). This behavior exactly matches “return all rows from the first table and pair with every row of the second table.” In contrast, inner joins require a matching condition, left/right joins preserve non-matching rows with NULLs on one side, and full joins combine all rows from both sides with NULLs where there’s no match.

Cross join is the Cartesian product of the two tables: it returns every possible pairing of a row from the first table with a row from the second table, with no join condition. This means you get as many result rows as the product of the two tables’ row counts (for example, 3 rows in the first table and 4 in the second yield 12 rows). This behavior exactly matches “return all rows from the first table and pair with every row of the second table.” In contrast, inner joins require a matching condition, left/right joins preserve non-matching rows with NULLs on one side, and full joins combine all rows from both sides with NULLs where there’s no match.