outerjoin

Outer join between two tables or timetables

Syntax

T = outerjoin(Tleft,Tright)

T = outerjoin(Tleft,Tright,Name,Value)

[T,ileft,iright] = outerjoin(___)

Description

T = outerjoin(Tleft,Tright) creates the table or timetable, T, as the outer join of Tleft and Tright using key variables. An outer join combines table rows where the key variables have matching values, but it also includes rows where the key variables from one input table have no matches in the other input table. For example, if Tleft has variables named Key1 and Var1, and Tright has variables Key1 and Var2, then T=outerjoin(Tleft,Tright) uses Key1 as a key variable.

By default, the key variables are:

• Variables that have the same names in Tleft and Tright, if both inputs are tables, or if Tleft is a timetable and Tright is a table.

• Vectors of row times, if both Tleft and Tright are timetables.

The matching values of the key variables in the left and right tables do not have to be in the same order. Outer joins can perform one-to-many and many-to-one matches between the key variables of the two tables. That is, a value that occurs once in a key variable of the left table can have multiple matches in the right table. Similarly, a value that occurs once in a key variable of the right table can have multiple matches in the left table.

You can perform outer joins only on certain combinations of tables and timetables.

• If Tleft is a table, then Tright must be a table. outerjoin returns T as a table.

• If Tleft is a timetable, then Tright can be either a table or a timetable. outerjoin returns T as a timetable for either combination of inputs.

T = outerjoin(Tleft,Tright,Name,Value) performs the outer-join operation with additional options specified by one or more Name,Value pair arguments.

[T,ileft,iright] = outerjoin(___) also returns index vectors, ileft and iright, indicating the correspondence between rows in T and rows in Tleft and Tright respectively. You can use this syntax with any of the input arguments in the previous syntaxes.

Examples

Outer-Join Operation of Tables with One Variable in Common

Create a table, Tleft.

Tleft = table([5;12;23;2;15;6],...
        {'cheerios';'pizza';'salmon';'oreos';'lobster';'pizza'},...
        'VariableNames',{'Age','FavoriteFood'},...
        'RowNames',{'Amy','Bobby','Holly','Harry','Marty','Sally'})

Tleft=6×2 table
             Age    FavoriteFood
             ___    ____________

    Amy       5     {'cheerios'}
    Bobby    12     {'pizza'   }
    Holly    23     {'salmon'  }
    Harry     2     {'oreos'   }
    Marty    15     {'lobster' }
    Sally     6     {'pizza'   }

Create a table, Tright, with one variable in common with Tleft, called FavoriteFood.

Tright = table({'cheerios';'oreos';'pizza';'salmon';'cake'},...
         [110;160;140;367;243],...
         {'A-';'D';'B';'B';'C-'},...
         'VariableNames',{'FavoriteFood','Calories','NutritionGrade'})

Tright=5×3 table
    FavoriteFood    Calories    NutritionGrade
    ____________    ________    ______________

    {'cheerios'}      110           {'A-'}    
    {'oreos'   }      160           {'D' }    
    {'pizza'   }      140           {'B' }    
    {'salmon'  }      367           {'B' }    
    {'cake'    }      243           {'C-'}    

Use the outerjoin function to create a new table, T, with data from tables Tleft and Tright.

T = outerjoin(Tleft,Tright)

T=7×5 table
    Age    FavoriteFood_Tleft    FavoriteFood_Tright    Calories    NutritionGrade
    ___    __________________    ___________________    ________    ______________

    NaN       {0×0 char  }          {'cake'    }          243         {'C-'    }  
      5       {'cheerios'}          {'cheerios'}          110         {'A-'    }  
     15       {'lobster' }          {0×0 char  }          NaN         {0×0 char}  
      2       {'oreos'   }          {'oreos'   }          160         {'D'     }  
     12       {'pizza'   }          {'pizza'   }          140         {'B'     }  
      6       {'pizza'   }          {'pizza'   }          140         {'B'     }  
     23       {'salmon'  }          {'salmon'  }          367         {'B'     }  

Table T contains a separate variable for the key variable from Tleft, called FavoriteFood_Tleft, and the key variable from Tright, called FavoriteFood_Tright.

Merge Key Variable Pair to Single Variable

Create a table, Tleft.

Tleft = table({'a' 'b' 'c' 'e' 'h'}',[1 2 3 11 17]',...
        'VariableNames',{'Key1' 'Var1'})

Tleft=5×2 table
    Key1     Var1
    _____    ____

    {'a'}      1 
    {'b'}      2 
    {'c'}      3 
    {'e'}     11 
    {'h'}     17 

Create a table, Tright, with common values in the variable Key1 between tables Tleft and Tright, but also containing rows with values of Key1 not present in Tleft.

Tright = table({'a','b','d','e'}',[4;5;6;7],...
         'VariableNames',{'Key1' 'Var2'})

Tright=4×2 table
    Key1     Var2
    _____    ____

    {'a'}     4  
    {'b'}     5  
    {'d'}     6  
    {'e'}     7  

Use the outerjoin function to create a new table, T, with data from tables Tleft and Tright. Merge the key values into a single variable in the output table, T.

T = outerjoin(Tleft,Tright,'MergeKeys',true)

T=6×3 table
    Key1     Var1    Var2
    _____    ____    ____

    {'a'}      1       4 
    {'b'}      2       5 
    {'c'}      3     NaN 
    {'d'}    NaN       6 
    {'e'}     11       7 
    {'h'}     17     NaN 

Variables in table T that came from Tleft contain missing values in the rows that have no match from Tright. Similarly, variables in T that came from Tright contain missing values in those rows that had no match from Tleft.

Outer-Join Operation of Tables and Indices to Values

Create a table, Tleft.

Tleft = table({'a' 'b' 'c' 'e' 'h'}',[1 2 3 11 17]',...
        'VariableNames',{'Key1' 'Var1'})

Tleft=5×2 table
    Key1     Var1
    _____    ____

    {'a'}      1 
    {'b'}      2 
    {'c'}      3 
    {'e'}     11 
    {'h'}     17 

Create a table, Tright, with common values in the variable Key1 between tables Tleft and Tright, but also containing rows with values of Key1 not present in Tleft.

Tright = table({'a','b','d','e'}',[4;5;6;7],...
         'VariableNames',{'Key1' 'Var2'})

Tright=4×2 table
    Key1     Var2
    _____    ____

    {'a'}     4  
    {'b'}     5  
    {'d'}     6  
    {'e'}     7  

Use the outerjoin function to create a new table, T, with data from tables Tleft and Tright. Match up rows with common values in the key variable, Key1, but also retain rows whose key values don’t have a match.

Also, return index vectors, ileft and iright indicating the correspondence between rows in T and rows in Tleft and Tright respectively.

[T,ileft,iright] = outerjoin(Tleft,Tright)

T=6×4 table
    Key1_Tleft    Var1    Key1_Tright    Var2
    __________    ____    ___________    ____

    {'a'     }      1     {'a'     }       4 
    {'b'     }      2     {'b'     }       5 
    {'c'     }      3     {0×0 char}     NaN 
    {0×0 char}    NaN     {'d'     }       6 
    {'e'     }     11     {'e'     }       7 
    {'h'     }     17     {0×0 char}     NaN 

ileft = 6×1

     1
     2
     3
     0
     4
     5

iright = 6×1

     1
     2
     0
     3
     4
     0

The index vectors ileft and iright contain zeros to indicate the rows in table T that do not correspond to rows in tables Tleft or Tright, respectively.

Left Outer-Join Operation of Tables and Indices to Values

Create a table, Tleft.

Tleft = table({'a' 'b' 'c' 'e' 'h'}',[1 2 3 11 17]',...
        'VariableNames',{'Key1' 'Var1'})

Tleft=5×2 table
    Key1     Var1
    _____    ____

    {'a'}      1 
    {'b'}      2 
    {'c'}      3 
    {'e'}     11 
    {'h'}     17 

Create a table, Tright, with common values in the variable Key1 between tables Tleft and Tright, but also containing rows with values of Key1 not present in Tleft.

Tright = table({'a','b','d','e'}',[4;5;6;7],...
         'VariableNames',{'Key1' 'Var2'})

Tright=4×2 table
    Key1     Var2
    _____    ____

    {'a'}     4  
    {'b'}     5  
    {'d'}     6  
    {'e'}     7  

Use the outerjoin function to create a new table, T, with data from tables Tleft and Tright. Ignore rows in Tright whose key values do not match any rows in Tleft.

Also, return index vectors, ileft and iright indicating the correspondence between rows in T and rows in Tleft and Tright respectively.

[T,ileft,iright] = outerjoin(Tleft,Tright,'Type','left')

T=5×4 table
    Key1_Tleft    Var1    Key1_Tright    Var2
    __________    ____    ___________    ____

      {'a'}         1     {'a'     }       4 
      {'b'}         2     {'b'     }       5 
      {'c'}         3     {0×0 char}     NaN 
      {'e'}        11     {'e'     }       7 
      {'h'}        17     {0×0 char}     NaN 

ileft = 5×1

     1
     2
     3
     4
     5

iright = 5×1

     1
     2
     0
     4
     0

All values of ileft are nonzero indicating that all rows in T have corresponding rows in Tleft.

Outer-Join Operation of Timetables

Create two timetables, Tleft and Tright. They have some row times in common, but each also includes row times that are not in the other timetable.

Tleft = timetable(seconds([1;2;4;6]),[1 2 3 11]')

Tleft=4×1 timetable
    Time     Var1
    _____    ____

    1 sec      1 
    2 sec      2 
    4 sec      3 
    6 sec     11 

Tright = timetable(seconds([2;4;6;7]),[4 5 6 7]')

Tright=4×1 timetable
    Time     Var1
    _____    ____

    2 sec     4  
    4 sec     5  
    6 sec     6  
    7 sec     7  

Combine Tleft and Tright with an outer join. T1 matches up the rows with common row times, but also includes the rows that do not have matches.

T1 = outerjoin(Tleft,Tright)

T1=5×2 timetable
    Time     Var1_Tleft    Var1_Tright
    _____    __________    ___________

    1 sec         1            NaN    
    2 sec         2              4    
    4 sec         3              5    
    6 sec        11              6    
    7 sec       NaN              7    

Combine Tleft and Tright, but ignore rows in Tright whose row times do not match any row times in Tleft.

T2 = outerjoin(Tleft,Tright,'Type','left')

T2=4×2 timetable
    Time     Var1_Tleft    Var1_Tright
    _____    __________    ___________

    1 sec         1            NaN    
    2 sec         2              4    
    4 sec         3              5    
    6 sec        11              6    

Input Arguments

Tleft — Left table

table | timetable

Left table, specified as a table or a timetable.

Tright — Right table

table | timetable

Right table, specified as a table or a timetable.

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Before R2021a, use commas to separate each name and value, and enclose Name in quotes.

Example: 'Keys',2 uses the second variable in Tleft and the second variable in Tright as key variables.

Keys — Variables to use as keys

positive integer | vector of positive integers | string array | character vector | cell array of character vectors | pattern scalar | logical vector

Variables to use as keys, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Keys' and a positive integer, vector of positive integers, string array, character vector, cell array of character vectors, pattern scalar, or logical vector.

You cannot use the 'Keys' name-value pair argument with the 'LeftKeys' and 'RightKeys' name-value pair arguments.

The vector of row labels can be a key. For more information, see the Algorithms section.

Example: 'Keys',[1 3] uses the first and third variables in Tleft and Tright as key variables.

Example: 'Keys',{'X','Y'} uses the variables named X and Y in Tleft and Tright as key variables.

Example: 'Keys','Row' uses the vectors of row names of Tleft and Tright as key variables, if both Tleft and Tright are tables with row names.

LeftKeys — Variables to use as keys in Tleft

positive integer | vector of positive integers | string array | character vector | cell array of character vectors | pattern scalar | logical vector

Variables to use as keys in Tleft, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'LeftKeys' and a positive integer, vector of positive integers, string array, character vector, cell array of character vectors, pattern scalar, or logical vector.

You must use the 'LeftKeys' name-value pair argument in conjunction with the 'RightKeys' name-value pair argument. 'LeftKeys' and 'RightKeys' both must specify the same number of key variables. outerjoin pairs key values based on their order.

The vector of row labels can be a key. For more information, see the Algorithms section.

Example: 'LeftKeys',1 uses only the first variable in Tleft as a key variable.

RightKeys — Variables to use as keys in Tright

positive integer | vector of positive integers | string array | character vector | cell array of character vectors | pattern scalar | logical vector

Variables to use as keys in Tright, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'RightKeys' and a positive integer, vector of positive integers, string array, character vector, cell array of character vectors, pattern scalar, or logical vector.

You must use the 'RightKeys' name-value pair argument in conjunction with the 'LeftKeys' name-value pair argument. 'LeftKeys' and 'RightKeys' both must specify the same number of key variables. outerjoin pairs key values based on their order.

The vector of row labels can be a key. For more information, see the Algorithms section.

Example: 'RightKeys',3 uses only the third variable in Tright as a key variable.

MergeKeys — Merge keys flag

false (default) | true | 0 | 1

Merge keys flag, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'MergeKeys' and either false, true, 0 or 1.

false

outerjoin includes two separate variables in the output table, T, for each key variable pair from tables Tleft and Tright. This behavior is the default behavior.

true

outerjoin includes a single variable in the output table, T, for each key variable pair from tables Tleft and Tright. outerjoin creates the single variable by merging the key values from Tleft and Tright, taking values from Tleft where a corresponding row exists in Tleft, and taking values from Tright otherwise. If you specify 'LeftVariables' or 'RightVariables' to include only one key from a key variable pair, then outerjoin includes the merged key—containing values from both key variables—in the output table. If you specify 'LeftVariables' and 'RightVariables' to exclude both keys from a key variable pair, then outerjoin does not include the merged key variable in the output table.

LeftVariables — Variables from Tleft to include in T

positive integer | vector of positive integers | string array | character vector | cell array of character vectors | pattern scalar | logical vector

Variables from Tleft to include in T, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'LeftVariables' and a positive integer, vector of positive integers, string array, character vector, cell array of character vectors, pattern scalar, or logical vector.

You can use 'LeftVariables' to include or exclude key variables as well as nonkey variables from the output, T.

By default, outerjoin includes all variables from Tleft.

RightVariables — Variables from Tright to include in T

positive integer | vector of positive integers | string array | character vector | cell array of character vectors | pattern scalar | logical vector

Variables from Tright to include in T, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'RightVariables' and a positive integer, vector of positive integers, string array, character vector, cell array of character vectors, pattern scalar, or logical vector.

You can use 'RightVariables' to include or exclude key variables as well as nonkey variables from the output, T.

By default, outerjoin includes all the variables from Tright.

Type — Type of outer join operation

'full' (default) | 'left' | 'right'

Type of outer join operation, specified as the comma-separated pair consisting of 'Type' and either 'full' (meaning a full outer join), 'left' (left outer join), or 'right' (right outer join).

• For a full outer join of inputs Tleft and Tright, the output T combines all rows from both inputs, filling empty table elements with missing values.

  

• For a left outer join, the output T includes all rows from Tleft, but excludes rows of Tright whose key values do not match any key values from Tleft.

  

• For a right outer join, T includes all rows from Tright, but excludes rows of Tleft whose key values do not match any key values from Tright.

  

By default, outerjoin does a full outer join and includes unmatched rows from both Tleft and Tright.

Output Arguments

T — Outer join from Tleft and Tright

table

Outer join from Tleft and Tright, returned as a table. The output table, T, contains one row for each pair of rows in tables Tleft and Tright that share the same combination of key values. If Tleft and Tright contain variables with the same name, outerjoin adds a unique suffix to the corresponding variable names in T. Variables in T that came from Tleft contain missing values in those rows that had no match from Tright. Similarly, variables in T that came from Tright contain missing values in those rows that had no match from Tleft.

(A missing value is equivalent to "Not-a-Number" for various data types, such as a NaN, NaT, empty string, or undefined categorical value.)

In general, if there are m rows in table Tleft and n rows in table Tright that all contain the same combination of values in the key variables, table T contains m*n rows for that combination. T also contains rows corresponding to key value combinations in one input table that do not match any row the other input table.

T contains the horizontal concatenation of Tleft(ileft,LeftVars) and Tright(iright,RightVars) sorted by the values in the key variables. By default, LeftVars consists of all the variables of Tleft, and RightVars consists of all the variables from Tright. Otherwise, LeftVars consists of the variables specified by the 'LeftVariables' name-value pair argument, and RightVars consists of the variables specified by the 'RightVariables' name-value pair argument.

You can store additional metadata such as descriptions, variable units, variable names, and row names in the table. For more information, see the Properties section of table.

ileft — Index to Tleft

column vector

Index to Tleft, returned as a column vector. Each element of ileft identifies the row in table Tleft that corresponds to that row in the output table, T. The vector ileft contains zeros to indicate the rows in T that do not correspond to rows in Tleft.

iright — Index to Tright

column vector

Index to Tright, returned as a column vector. Each element of iright identifies the row in table Tright that corresponds to that row in the output table, T. The vector iright contains zeros to indicate the rows in T that do not correspond to rows in Tright.

More About

Key Variable

Variable used to match and combine data between the input tables, Tleft and Tright.

Algorithms

• The vector of row labels from an input table or timetable can be used as a key variable. Row labels are the row names of a table or the row times of a timetable. To use this vector as a key, specify it as 'Row' (for the row names of a table), as the name of a timetable vector of row times, or as the value of T.Properties.DimensionNames{1}, where T is the table or timetable.

  In general, outerjoin copies row labels from the input table Tleft to the output table T.

  • If Tleft has no row labels, then T has no row labels.

  • If Tleft has row labels, then outerjoin copies row labels from Tleft to create row labels in T.

    • If you specify row labels from both Tleft and Tright as a key pair, then outerjoin merges row labels from Tright into row labels of T where needed.

    • If you specify row labels of Tleft as a key, but do not specify row labels of Tright as the matching key, then outerjoin creates default row labels in T where needed. Typically, default row labels are NaNs or missing values

    • If both Tleft and Tright are tables, but you do not specify either input’s row names as a key, then outerjoin does not create row names in T.

    • If both Tleft and Tright are timetables, but you do not specify either input’s row times as a key, then outerjoin copies row times from Tleft to T. It also fills in NaNs or NaTs as row times where needed.

  You cannot perform an outer join using the row labels of Tleft as the left key and a variable of Tright as the right key. To perform the outer join, convert the row labels of Tleft to a table variable and use the new table variable as a key.

Extended Capabilities

Tall Arrays

Calculate with arrays that have more rows than fit in memory.

The outerjoin function fully supports tall arrays. For more information, see Tall Arrays.

C/C++ Code Generation

Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB® Coder™.

Usage notes and limitations:

• Input tables cannot have key variables with the same names unless the value of 'MergeKeys' is true (logical 1).

• In general, the input tables cannot have any nonkey variables with the same names. However, you can join subsets of the input tables if you specify the 'LeftVariables' and 'RightVariables' name-value arguments. Specify these arguments so that no variable name appears in both 'LeftVariables' and 'RightVariables'.

• The values of these name-value arguments must be constant:

  • 'Keys'

  • 'LeftKeys'

  • 'RightKeys'

  • 'MergeKeys'

  • 'LeftVariables'

  • 'RightVariables'

  • 'Type'

• The values of these name-value arguments do not support pattern expressions:

  • 'Keys'

  • 'LeftKeys'

  • 'RightKeys'

  • 'LeftVariables'

  • 'RightVariables'

• Nested tables and timetables are not supported.

Thread-Based Environment
Run code in the background using MATLAB® backgroundPool or accelerate code with Parallel Computing Toolbox™ ThreadPool.

Version History

Introduced in R2013b