another select / join question

[Anon]

I have three tables

jobs:
jid
job_desc

Users:
uid
users

Job_asn
jid
uid

I would like to list out all the jobs out and where there is no match in job_asn I would like blank.

This what I have so far:
SELECT u.user, j.job_desc FROM jobs j, user u, job_asn ja WHERE u.uid = ja.uid and j.jid = ja.jid

This query only gives me the jobs assigned.

and if I do this query

SELECT u.user, j.job_desc FROM jobs j, user u, job_asn ja WHERE u.uid = ja.uid

This givs misinformation

Thanks for any help

[Anon]

What is this left join stuff? Could this be where I need to start?

[smarlowe]

Yes. A standard join only returns rows that have a match from both "columns" so to speak.

With a left join, one table is kept complete, and the other is matched up against it, with unmatching rows being dropped.