Why is LEFT JOIN used instead of other types of JOIN?

LEFT JOIN is used when you need to get all records from the left (main) table, even if there are no matching records in the right table.

This is useful when the completeness of data from the left table is important, and data from the right are only needed if they exist.

For example, if you have a customers table and an orders table, and you want to get a list of all customers with their orders, including those who haven't made any orders yet, you use LEFT JOIN.

Other types of JOIN:

• INNER JOIN returns only matching records from both tables.
• RIGHT JOIN returns all records from the right table and matching ones from the left.
• FULL JOIN returns all records from both tables, combining matches.

The choice depends on the task and what data needs to be obtained.