Join vs. sub-query I am an old-school MySQL user and have always preferred JOIN over sub-query. But nowadays everyone uses sub-query and I hate it, I don't know why. I lack the theoretical knowledge to judge for myself if there is any difference. Is a sub-query as good as a JOIN and therefore there is nothing to worry about? Answer: Taken from the manual (14.2.10.11 Rewriting Subqueries as Joins):       A LEFT [OUTER] JOIN can be faster than an equivalent subquery because the server