MySQL Left Join and NULL columns from right table - mysql

Question

I have the following two MySQL tables which I need to join:
CREATE TABLE `tbl_L` (
`datetime` datetime NOT NULL,
`value` decimal(14,8) DEFAULT NULL,
`series_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`series_id`,`datetime`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8
CREATE TABLE `tbl_R` (
`datetime` datetime NOT NULL,
`value` decimal(14,8) DEFAULT NULL,
`series_id` int(11) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`series_id`,`datetime`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8
I need to select all the dates and values from tbl_L, but also the values in tbl_R that have the same datetime as an entry in tbl_L. A trivial join, like so:
SELECT tbl_L.datetime AS datetime, tbl_L.value AS val_L, tbl_R.value AS val_R
FROM tbl_L
LEFT JOIN tbl_R
ON tbl_L.datetime = tbl_R.datetime
WHERE
tbl_L.series_id = 1 AND tbl_R.series_id = 2 ORDER BY tbl_L.datetime ASC
Won't work because it will only return datetime that are both in tbl_L and tbl_R (because the right table is mentioned in the WHERE clause).
Modifying the query to look like this:
SELECT tbl_L.datetime AS datetime, tbl_L.value AS val_L, tbl_R.value AS val_R
FROM tbl_L
LEFT JOIN tbl_R
ON tbl_L.datetime = tbl_R.datetime
AND tbl_R.series_id = 2
AND tbl_L.series_id = 1
ORDER BY tbl_L.datetime ASC;
Significantly slows it down (from a few milliseconds to a few long seconds).
Edit: and also doesn't actually work. I will clarify what I need to achieve:
Assume the following data in the tables:
mysql> SELECT * FROM tbl_R;
+---------------------+------------+-----------+
| datetime | value | series_id |
+---------------------+------------+-----------+
| 2013-02-20 19:21:00 | 5.87000000 | 2 |
| 2013-02-20 19:22:00 | 5.90000000 | 2 |
| 2013-02-20 19:23:00 | 5.80000000 | 2 |
| 2013-02-20 19:25:00 | 5.65000000 | 2 |
+---------------------+------------+-----------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
mysql> SELECT * FROM tbl_L;
+---------------------+-------------+-----------+
| datetime | value | series_id |
+---------------------+-------------+-----------+
| 2013-02-20 19:21:00 | 13.16000000 | 1 |
| 2013-02-20 19:23:00 | 13.22000000 | 1 |
| 2013-02-20 19:24:00 | 13.14000000 | 1 |
| 2013-02-20 19:25:00 | 13.04000000 | 1 |
+---------------------+-------------+-----------+
4 rows in set (0.00 sec)
Again, I need all entries in tbl_L joined with the entries in tbl_R that match in terms of datetime, otherwise NULL.
My output should look like this:
+---------------------+-------------+-------------+
| datetime | val_L | val_R |
+---------------------+-------------+-------------+
| 2013-02-20 19:21:00 | 13.16000000 | 5.870000000 |
| 2013-02-20 19:23:00 | 13.22000000 | 5.800000000 |
| 2013-02-20 19:24:00 | 13.14000000 | NULL |
| 2013-02-20 19:25:00 | 13.04000000 | 5.650000000 |
+---------------------+-------------+-------------+
Thanks again!

Answer 1

You can get the data you want by moving only the condition for tbl_R into the join's ON clause like this:
SELECT tbl_L.datetime AS datetime, tbl_L.value AS val_L, tbl_R.value AS val_R
FROM tbl_L
LEFT JOIN tbl_R
ON tbl_L.datetime = tbl_R.datetime
AND tbl_R.series_id = 2
WHERE
tbl_L.series_id = 1 ORDER BY tbl_L.datetime ASC
Also, there is no index for the query to use on tbl_L. Adding an index on tbl_L.series_id will help the query's performance.