A join in which each matching record from two tables is combined into one record in the query's results. When a record from the table that's contributing all of its records can't be matched with a record from the other table, the record still appears in the results of the query, view, or stored procedure; however, the cells that had no matching record in the other table are empty. You can create three variations of an outer join to specify the unmatched rows to be included: left outer joins and right outer joins are in Microsoft Access databases and Microsoft Access projects; full outer joins are only in Access projects.