SQL CROSS JOIN

In SQL, the CROSS JOIN operation allows us to combine rows from two or more tables without any specific relationship between them.

Example

SELECT * 
FROM Customers
CROSS JOIN Orders;

Here, the SQL query combines each row of the Customers table with each row of the Orders table.


CROSS JOIN Syntax

The syntax of the SQL CROSS JOIN operation is:

SELECT column1, column2, ...
FROM table1
CROSS JOIN table2;

Here,

  • column1 and column2 - the table columns
  • table1 and table2 - the names of the tables we want to combine

Example: SQL CROSS JOIN

SELECT Customers.customer_id, Customers.first_name, Orders.order_id
FROM Customers
CROSS JOIN Orders;

Here, the SQL command performs a CROSS JOIN operation between the Customers and Orders tables.

This creates a Cartesian product of all customer IDs and first names with order IDs.

The result is a combination of every customer with every order.


CROSS JOIN With Multiple Tables

We can also perform CROSS JOIN with more than two tables. For example,

SELECT Customers.customer_id, Orders.item, Shippings.status
FROM Customers 
CROSS JOIN Orders 
CROSS JOIN Shippings;

Here, the SQL command combines rows from the Customers, Orders, and Shippings tables to create a Cartesian product.


SQL CROSS JOIN With Aliases

We can use aliases with table names to make our snippet short and clean. For example,

SELECT c.customer_id, o.item, s.status
FROM Customers c
CROSS JOIN Orders o
CROSS JOIN Shippings s;

In this example, c, o, and s are aliases for the Customers, Orders, and Shippings tables, respectively.

These aliases make the query more concise and readable.


Also Read

Did you find this article helpful?

Our premium learning platform, created with over a decade of experience and thousands of feedbacks.

Learn and improve your coding skills like never before.

Try Programiz PRO
  • Interactive Courses
  • Certificates
  • AI Help
  • 2000+ Challenges