What are cross apply and outer apply in SQL Server?
Likewise, people ask, what is cross apply and outer apply in SQL Server?
SQL Server APPLY operator has two variants; CROSS APPLY and OUTER APPLY. The CROSS APPLY operator returns only those rows from the left table expression (in its final output) if it matches with the right table expression. In other words, the right table expression returns rows for the left table expression match only.
Furthermore, when to use Cross Apply and Outer Apply?
It retrieves those records from the table valued function and the table being joined, where it finds matching rows between the two. On the other hand, OUTER APPLY retrieves all the records from both the table valued function and the table, irrespective of the match.
A cross join is used when you wish to create combination of every row from two tables. All row combinations are included in the result; this is commonly called cross product join. A common use for a cross join is to create obtain all combinations of items, such as colors and sizes.