[development] SQL question.

Hi, I have been trying to work out a small sql issue, and I was wondering if someone might be able to help me. Basically I have 2 tables and I was to do a left join and pull out all rows which has a value in the right hand table or doesn't exist. eg. SELECT a.a, a.b, b.a, b.c FROM a LEFT JOIN b ON a.a = b.a WHERE b.c = 'A'; So basically I want it to return. a b a c 1 1 null null 2 2 2 A etc. Or do I need to 2 selects and merge them. When I do this now I get more of an inner join instead of a left join. I am not sure how I say "or doesn't exist". Thanks in advance. Gordon.