title: MySQL LEFT JOIN - Values can be NULL
body: <p>I'm modifying a MySQL statement but having a few troubles with LEFT JOIN and blank rows. At the moment I have:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SELECT cs.case_id, cs.child_firstname, gu.*
  FROM tblcases AS cs 
  LEFT JOIN tblguardians AS gu
  ON cs.case_id = gu.case_id 
  WHERE cs.child_firstname = '%craig%' AND gu.firstname LIKE '%sally%'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This query works fine as long as there is an entry in the "tblguardians" table, but the LEFT JOIN returns NULL if there is no record - therefore the entry isn't returned when I iterate over the results in PHP.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way to return the fields from "tblcases" whether or not "tblguardians" has an associated result? I think I've read too many pages of Google for much more information to sink in!</p>