Confused on RIGHT OUTER JOIN

Question

Here is a query and desired output for a weekly sales report. The problem is that if no data exists for given businessdate, the report is empty. It should show store with zeroed totals.
NOTES:
1. storenbr must be string
2. bow, eow = beginning and end of week
3. I have no say-so on the date format
with report_stores  as
(  select  501   as storeid from dual union all
    select   22   as storeid from dual union all
    select   24   as storeid from dual
, store_details as
    select   501   as storeid,   '6504'    as storenbr,  'Quincey Circle' as storename  from dual union all
    select   22   as storeid,    '2385'    as storenbr,  'Goodlet' as storename   from dual union all
    select   24   as storeid,    '4290'   as storenbr,  'Poplar' as storename   from dual
, sales_data as
    select  501 as storeid,  to_date('12/01/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')    as businessdate,  100 as sales_amt, 50 as guestcount from dual union all
    select  22  as storeid,  to_date('12/01/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')    as businessdate,  200 as sales_amt, 50 as guestcount from dual union all
    select  24  as storeid,  to_date('12/01/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')   as businessdate,  300 as sales_amt, 50 as guestcount from dual  union all
    select  501 as storeid,  to_date('12/02/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')   as businessdate,  400 as sales_amt, 100 as guestcount from dual union all
    select  22  as storeid,  to_date('12/02/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')    as businessdate,  500 as sales_amt, 100 as guestcount from dual union all
    select  24  as storeid,  to_date('12/02/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')    as businessdate,  600 as sales_amt, 100 as guestcount from dual 
select  storenbr
,       to_date('01/30/2011', 'MM/DD/YYYY') as EOW
,       sum(nvl(sales_amt, 0))              as sales_amount
,       sum(nvl(sales.guestcount , 0))      as guestcount
from report_stores   stores
inner join store_details details on details.storeid = stores.storeid
left outer join sales_data sales    on  sales.storeid = stores.storeid 
                                  and   sales.businessdate  between  to_date('01/24/2011',  'MM/DD/YYYY') and to_date('01/30/2011', 'MM/DD/YYYY')
group by storename,      to_date('01/30/2011', 'MM/DD/YYYY');However, when I make date dynamic by adding a dates table, I don't get output.
with report_dates as
   select to_date('01/05/2011', 'MM/DD/YYYY') as businessdate, 'Wednesday' as day_name, 2 as week_nbr,   to_date('01/03/2011', 'MM/DD/YYYY')  as bow,   to_date('01/09/2011', 'MM/DD/YYYY')  as eow from dual union all
   select to_date('01/24/2011', 'MM/DD/YYYY') as businessdate, 'Monday'    as day_name, 5 as week_nbr,   to_date('01/24/2011', 'MM/DD/YYYY')  as bow,   to_date('01/30/2011', 'MM/DD/YYYY')  as eow from dual
, report_stores  as
(  select  501   as storeid from dual union all
    select   22   as storeid from dual union all
    select   24   as storeid from dual
, store_details as
    select   501   as storeid,   '6504'    as storenbr,  'Quincey Circle' as storename  from dual union all
    select   22   as storeid,    '2385'    as storenbr,  'Goodlet' as storename   from dual union all
    select   24   as storeid,    '4290'   as storenbr,  'Poplar' as storename   from dual
, sales_data as
    select  501 as storeid,  to_date('12/01/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')    as businessdate,  100 as sales_amt, 50 as guestcount from dual union all
    select  22  as storeid,  to_date('12/01/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')    as businessdate,  200 as sales_amt, 50 as guestcount from dual union all
    select  24  as storeid,  to_date('12/01/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')   as businessdate,  300 as sales_amt, 50 as guestcount from dual  union all
    select  501 as storeid,  to_date('12/02/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')   as businessdate,  400 as sales_amt, 100 as guestcount from dual union all
    select  22  as storeid,  to_date('12/02/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')    as businessdate,  500 as sales_amt, 100 as guestcount from dual union all
    select  24  as storeid,  to_date('12/02/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')    as businessdate,  600 as sales_amt, 100 as guestcount from dual 
select storenbr
,       eow
,       sum(nvl(sales_amt, 0))                as sales_amount
,       sum(nvl(sales.guestcount , 0))      as guestcount
from report_stores              stores
inner join store_details        details   on details.storeid = stores.storeid
right outer join sales_data     sales     on  sales.storeid = stores.storeid 
inner join report_dates         dte       on    dte.businessdate =   to_date('01/24/2010', 'MM/DD/YYYY')
                                    --    and   sales.businessdate between   bow  and   eow
group by storenbr, eow
;What am I doing wrong? For kicks I also tried switching the JOINS like :
Select *
from sales_data sales
left outer join report_stores            stores on stores.stoeid = sales.storeid but couldn't make this work either.

Answer 1

Hi,
Thanks for posting the sample data in a useful form.
Don't forget to post the results you want to get from that data. Is this what you want?
STOR EOW         SALES_AMOUNT GUESTCOUNT
6504                        0          0
2385                        0          0
4290                        0          0If so, you want to inner-join sales_data and report_dates, and then outer-join that result set to report_stores.
Here's one way to do that:
SELECT    details.storenbr
,         dte.eow
,         NVL (SUM (sales.sales_amt),  0)       AS sales_amount
,         NVL (SUM (sales.guestcount), 0)       AS guestcount
FROM           report_stores   stores
INNER JOIN      store_details      details          ON     details.storeid        = stores.storeid
LEFT OUTER JOIN (     sales_data      sales
                  JOIN     report_dates    dte         ON      sales.businessdate  BETWEEN   dte.bow 
                                                       AND           dte.eow
          )                      ON       sales.storeid          = stores.storeid
GROUP BY  details.storenbr
,             dte.eow
;As in your first query, you want the every row in report_stores to appear in the output, whether it matches anything in sales+dte or not, so you want to continue saying "FROM report_stores ... *LEFT* OUTER JOIN ...".
You'll notice that I changed
SUM (NVL (x, 0)) to
NVL (SUM (x), 0). Both give the same results, but, if you have 1000 rows, the former calls NVL 1000 times, but the latter only calls NVL once, so it's more efficient.