Crystal Reports eliminating all data with a Null value when it is added to a report

Question

I've got a report that has always worked. Basically, the report runs against the database using Catapult (back office PC system for our retail stores). The purpose of the report is to get a file that has some basic information that will be pulled for labels later.

I'm having an issue now. I wanted to find a way to add a "Promo Price" field to this report. To do this, I pulled in another table (view) from our database and linked the tables to allow me to show the "Promo Price" (DIS_Description). Now, I place the field (DIS_Description) in the report and run it. It works perfectly to show me the Promo Price field for records that actually have a Promo Price (again, managed in Catapult itself). But, for records that have no value to the DIS_Description, they won't be shown at all. I'm not filtering the report, so I can't simply throw a "OR ISNULL({DIS_Description})" to fix this.

Is there a way to show records that don't have a value for this field? I've even tried creating the following formula and using that in the report instead of the DIS_Description field itself:

IF ISNULL({DIS_Description})

THEN ""

ELSE {DIS_Description}

This still returns no data unless the field has a value. The second that I remove that field from the report, it shows everything as it should. Any ideas here?

Answer 1

Ok, I was poking around with the table links, and I think I figured it out. The join was an INNER JOIN (not 100% sure what the different types of joins mean). I tried changing it to the others. LEFT OUTER JOIN returned the same problems. I then tried RIGHT OUTER JOIN and it seems to be returning my data perfectly...

Anyone care to explain why? At least I have the answer now.