title: Transact-SQL shorthand join syntax?
body: <p>I have noticed a few times when working on legacy code, that you can do left and right outer joins in sql by using the </p>
  
  <pre><code>=*
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>as kind of shorthand for "right outer join" and</p>
  
  <pre><code>*=
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>as kind of shorthand for "left outer join" in statements like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>select table1.firstname, table2.lastname
  from table1, table2
  where table1.id *= table2.id
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I would guess that there are other operators like these two for the different kinds of joins, but i have not been able to find any good complete documentation about it. So do you know any good links to documentation?</p>
  
  <p>I personaly think that the SQL statements i have seen using these operators are more difficult to figure out than when using the spelled out syntax, so is there any benefits using the shorthand version?</p>