title: MySQL left join, less results
body: <p>I've got a little problem, I'm stuck with. I got two tables. The first one holds all id's, the second one some, but not all from tableA, a value and a corresponding identifier. As I thought I had it understood, a left join on the id's should give me all id's in the first table and null for the second, if the id doesn't exist in tableB. But I keep getting the number of id's that exist in both tables. Did I get the concept wrong?</p>
  
  <p>My statement so far is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT tableA.id, tableB.desiredValue
  FROM tableA 
  LEFT JOIN tableB ON tableA.id=tableB.item_id
  WHERE tableB.element_id = 'something'
  OR tableB.element_id IS NULL;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Any pointers?</p>
  
  <p>Thanx, best regards,
  Marcus</p>