An outer join in which all the records from the left side of the LEFT JOIN operation in the query's SQL statement are added to the Recordset object, even if there are no matching values in the joined field from the table on the right. Records from the table on the right are combined with those from the table on the left only when there are matching values in the joined fields. When a left-side record has no match, a row of Null values is joined on the right side.