There are two types of

OUTER

JOINS: 1. LEFT JOIN - same as

LEFT OUTER JOIN

2. RIGHT JOIN - same as

RIGHT OUTER JOIN

LEFT JOIN example

SELECT 
    students.first_name, 
    notes.*
FROM `students` 
LEFT JOIN notes ON notes.student_id = students.id

These two joins are the same, they produce the same result

LEFT OUTER JOIN

example:

SELECT 
    students.first_name, 
    notes.*
FROM `students` 
LEFT OUTER JOIN notes ON notes.student_id = students.id

Note: The same goes for

RIGHT JOIN

and

RIGHT OUTER JOIN

, they produce the same result