🔗 INNER JOIN in SQL

Last Updated: 7th January 2026

The INNER JOIN returns only those rows that have matching values in both tables. If a row does not match, it is excluded from the result.

Think like this:

Table A has some rows
Table B has some rows
INNER JOIN keeps only the common part

Hinglish Tip 🗣: Dono tables me match hone wali rows hi chahiye → INNER JOIN.

🧾 Basic Syntax

SELECT columns
FROM table1
INNER JOIN table2
ON table1.common_column = table2.common_column;

Notes:

INNER keyword is optional
JOIN alone means INNER JOIN

📄 Example Tables

students

student_id	name
1	Rahul
2	Anjali
3	Aman

enrollments

student_id	course
1	SQL
3	Python
4	Java

📄 INNER JOIN Example

SELECT students.name, enrollments.course
FROM students
INNER JOIN enrollments
ON students.student_id = enrollments.student_id;

$\checkmark$ Result

name	course
Rahul	SQL
Aman	Python

Explanation:

student_id = 2 → no match → excluded
student_id = 4 → exists only in enrollments → excluded

🔄 INNER JOIN with WHERE

SELECT s.name, e.course
FROM students s
INNER JOIN enrollments e
ON s.student_id = e.student_id
WHERE e.course = 'SQL';

Execution order:

FROM + JOIN
ON condition
WHERE
SELECT

Multiple Joins

You can have multiple joins in a single query
You can have multiple tables in a single join

SELECT s.name, e.course
FROM students s
INNER JOIN enrollments e
ON s.student_id = e.student_id
INNER JOIN courses c
ON e.course_id = c.course_id;

Explanation:

s = students
e = enrollments
c = courses
e.course_id = c.course_id
e is the common table between s and c tables

Inner Joins Using USING Keyword

It is helpful when you have identical column names in both tables
You can pass multiple identical column names to USING keyword

SELECT s.name, e.course
FROM students s
INNER JOIN enrollments e
USING (student_id);

Hinglish Tip 🗣: USING keyword ke saath ON keyword nahi lagta hai.

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