How to interpret * in this query

Question

I got a query which, apparently, is simple if it weren’t for the fact that I have these two * Alas, I’m not sure if it’s inner join, left join or someone from the same family.

I need to turn this query for linq to sql, and the result is not working. Can anyone help me interpret this? I did left join and it didn’t add up.

select AFENTIDADE.NOMEENTIDADE, NOMEAO, NOMEUTILIZADOR,
MN.DATACRIA, MN.DATAFECHO, MN.NUMFACT,
MN.NUMFOLHA, AESERVICO.TempoEI, HORASA, R.PRECOD
From AEMANUTE MN WITH (NOLOCK), AFENTIDADE WITH (NOLOCK), AREGDOC R WITH (NOLOCK),
UTILIZADORES WITH (NOLOCK), AESERVICO WITH (NOLOCK),  AIAREAORGANICA WITH (NOLOCK)
Where  (MN.CODENTIDADE=AFENTIDADE.CODENTIDADE
And MN.CODAO=AIAREAORGANICA.CODAO
AND MN.CODAO *=R.CODAO
And MN.numfolha=aeservico.numfolha
And MN.numfact *= R.numfact
And aeservico.codutilizador=utilizadores.codutilizador
AND UTILIZADORES.ANULADO IS NULL 
AND
R.coddoc='FM') And 
R.STATUS<>'E' And
MN.IdSituacao=5
--or MN.IdSituacao=5) 
And
LEFT(MN.datafecho, 10) >='2017-04-01' And LEFT(MN.datafecho, 10)  <='2017-04-30' 
ORDER BY  NOMEAO, NOMEUTILIZADOR, AFENTIDADE.NOMEENTIDADE

Answer 1

At first the construction *= is the same as LEFT JOIN.

Constructions of the type

-- código #1
SELECT T1.codigo, T2.nome
  from tab1 as T1, tab2 as T2
  where T1.codigo *= T2.codigo;

are usually converted to

-- código #2
SELECT T1.codigo, T2.nome
  from tab1 as T1
       left outer join tab2 as T2 on T1.codigo = T2.codigo;

However, the returned result may be slightly different depending on the other conditions involved and the DBMS.

---

Follow conversion suggestion for your code; evaluate it carefully as it has not been tested.

-- código #3
SELECT ...
  from  AEMANUTE as MN
        inner join AFENTIDADE on AFENTIDADE.CODENTIDADE = MN.CODENTIDADE
        left outer join AREGDOC as R on R.CODAO = M.CODAO and R.numfact = MN.numfact
        inner join AESERVICO on aeservico.numfolha = MN.numfolha
        inner join UTILIZADORES on utilizadores.codutilizador = aeservico.codutilizador
        inner join AIAREAORGANICA on AIAREAORGANICA.CODAO = MN.CODAO
  where UTILIZADORES.ANULADO IS NULL 
        and (R.coddoc is null or R.coddoc = 'FM')
        and (R.STATUS is null or R.STATUS <> 'E')
        and MN.IdSituacao = 5
        and LEFT(MN.datafecho, 10) >='2017-04-01' And LEFT(MN.datafecho, 10)  <='2017-04-30' 
  order by NOMEAO, NOMEUTILIZADOR, AFENTIDADE.NOMEENTIDADE;

---

Reading suggestion

• Old Join Syntax vs. New