SQL Server: What is the difference between CROSS JOIN and FULL OUTER JOIN?

Question

What is the difference between CROSS JOIN and FULL OUTER JOIN in SQL Server?

Are they the same, or not? Please explain. When would one use either of these?

Answer 1

They are the same concepts, apart from the NULL value returned.

See below:

declare @table1 table( col1 int, col2 int );
insert into @table1 select 1, 11 union all select 2, 22;

declare @table2 table ( col1 int, col2 int );
insert into @table2 select 10, 101 union all select 2, 202;

select
    t1.*,
    t2.*
from @table1 t1
full outer join @table2 t2 on t1.col1 = t2.col1
order by t1.col1, t2.col1;

/* full outer join
col1        col2        col1        col2
----------- ----------- ----------- -----------
NULL        NULL        10          101
1           11          NULL        NULL
2           22          2           202
*/

select
    t1.*,
    t2.*
from @table1 t1
cross join @table2 t2
order by t1.col1, t2.col1;

/* cross join
col1        col2        col1        col2
----------- ----------- ----------- -----------
1           11          2           202
1           11          10          101
2           22          2           202
2           22          10          101
*/