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Q&A Are there best practices for sticking conditions in WHERE clauses vs the JOIN statement?

SQL is a declarative language, and the form of the query does not dictate the form of the query plan that actually retrieves the data. So these two queries might be not only the same speed, but act...

posted 3y ago by Bruce Alderman‭

Answer
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Bruce Alderman‭ · 2020-11-12T22:33:14Z (over 3 years ago)
SQL is a declarative language, and the form of the query does not dictate the form of the query plan that actually retrieves the data. So these two queries might be not only the same speed, but actually map to the exact same query plan to be executed.

So if speed and results don't give an advantage to one form, the best practice is to go with the one that is easier to read. In this case, I'd go with the first one.

In the second query, the JOIN handles both joining and filtering the data.  By using a separate WHERE clause, you separate the actions of joining and filtering into different clauses.

If a second filter needs to be added later, it's a little less intuitive to add it to the JOIN. It's possible a later developer might create a WHERE clause, and then you'd have the JOIN filtering and joining, and the WHERE filtering as well.

But if you're already using a WHERE for filtering, it's simple and intuitive to add another condition to the WHERE.