Did not receive expected results when using LEFT JOIN? - sql-server

Question

I have the following SQL statement, and it returns only 2 records even though I have 300 employees. Does anyone see what I could be doing wrong?
SELECT Employees.[Employee ID],
Employees.Employee,
Employees.[First Name],
Employees.[Middle Name],
Employees.[Last Name],
Employees.Position,
[Work].[Work ID]
FROM Employees LEFT JOIN
[Work] ON Employees.[Employee ID] = [Work].[Employee ID]
WHERE [Work].[Work Date] = '06-13-2012'

Answer 1

When using outer join filter on outer table must be applied in ON clause, otherwise you effectively get inner join:
SELECT
Employees.[Employee ID],
Employees.Employee,
Employees.[First Name],
Employees.[Middle Name],
Employees.[Last Name],
Employees.Position,
[Work].[Work ID]
FROM Employees
LEFT JOIN [Work]
ON Employees.[Employee ID] = [Work].[Employee ID]
AND [Work].[Work Date] = '06-13-2012'

Answer 2

If you want all employees, perhaps you are looking for something like:
SELECT Employees.[Employee ID], ...
FROM Employees LEFT JOIN
[Work] ON Employees.[Employee ID] = [Work].[Employee ID]
AND [Work].[Work Date] = '20120613'
Also note that you should use an unambiguous date format, e.g. yyyyMMdd

Answer 3

Have you checked the date in the Where clause?
Try converting into a datetime or check if you don't have hours/minutes/seconds defined in the [Work].[Work Date] column data.
Try removing the join to see where is the problem:
SELECT [Work].[Employee ID], [Work].[Work ID]
FROM [Work]
WHERE [Work].[Work Date] = '06-13-2012'
How many records you have like this?
Do all the Employee ID's match the ID's in Employees table?
If you need all the employees than you should do an LEFT OUTER JOIN:
SELECT Employees.[Employee ID],
Employees.Employee,
Employees.[First Name],
Employees.[Middle Name],
Employees.[Last Name],
Employees.Position,
[Work].[Work ID]
FROM Employees LEFT OUTER JOIN
[Work] ON Employees.[Employee ID] = [Work].[Employee ID]
AND [Work].[Work Date] = '06-13-2012'
Is this what you want?

Answer 4

Also try to check out [Work Date] column- if it also have time part (DateTime data type), then you should take that in account:
SELECT
Employees.[Employee ID],
Employees.Employee,
Employees.[First Name],
Employees.[Middle Name],
Employees.[Last Name],
Employees.Position,
[Work].[Work ID]
FROM Employees
LEFT JOIN [Work]
ON Employees.[Employee ID] = [Work].[Employee ID]
WHERE Convert(Char(10), [Work].[Work Date], 120) = '2012-06-13' -- can find better way