Re: multiple outer joins problem

David beat me to it, of course, since he's got nothing better to do.

Your syntax didn't provide the correct result, because the "c.month = 201008" defeats the outer join (when the c record is null, c.month is not equal to 201008, nothing is equal to null).

The old oracle outer join syntax does allow to obtain the correct result though:

Select s.name, count(*),

   sum(decode(c.month,201008,1,0))
   from t_car c, t_link l, t_state s
   Where s.name not like 't%' and s.stateid = l.stateid(+)      And l.carid = c.carid(+)
   GROUP BY s.name
   order BY s.name;

NAME                               COUNT(*) SUM(DECODE(C.MONTH,201008,1,0))
-------------------------------- ---------- -------------------------------
Arizona                                   3                               2
California                                1                               0
Delaware                                  1                               0
Florida                                   3                               3